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The Great 
Lord Burghley 



A STUDY IN ELIZABETHAN 
STATECRAFT ^ J* ^ BY 

MARTIN A. S. HUME 



« 



it It 4 Author of "The Courtships of Queen 
Elizabeth," Editor of the Calendars of Spanish 
State Papers (Pubuc Record Office) £ 1i 



1 1 He can never be a good statesman 'who 
respecteth not the public more than his oivn 
private advantage." — Lord BuRGHLEY 



NEW YORK 

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

1898 



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Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &> Co. 
At the Ballantyne Press 



1898. 



THE GREAT 
LORD BURGHLEY 



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TO THE MOST HONOURABLE 

r R s obert ^Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil^ K.G, 

THIRD MARQUIS OF SALISBURY 

PRIME MINISTER OF QUEEN VICTORIA, 

THIS ATTEMPT AT A POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY OF 

HIS ILLUSTRIOUS ANCESTOR, THE PRIME 

MINISTER OF QUEEN ELIZABETH, 

is respectfully dedicated by 

MARTIN A. S. HUME. 



INTRODUCTION 



FOR nearly half a century William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 
exercised greater influence over the tuture fortunes of 
England than ever fell to the share of a statesman before 
or since. It was a period when Mediaeval Europe was in 
the melting-pot, from which, in due season, some of her 
peoples were to arise bright and shining, with fresh faiths, 
higher ideals, and nobler aspirations, to start on a new 
career of civilisation ; whilst others were still to cling 
a while longer to the garb of dross which remained 
of the old order, and was to hamper them in the times 
to come. 

How England should emerge from the welter of the 
old tides and the new, depended to some extent upon pro- 
vidential circumstances, but more largely still upon the 
personal characteristics of those who guided her national 
policy and that of her competitors. Never was nation 
more favoured in this respect than was England at this 
crisis of the world's history. The conditions of the 
Queen's birth compelled her to embrace the cause of 
religious freedom, whilst her intellect, her sex, and her 
versatility enabled her during a long course of years suc- 
cessfully to play off one continental rival against another, 
until she was strong enough openly to grasp and hold the 
balance. But withal, her vanity, her fickleness, the folly 
and greed of her favourites, or the machinations of her 
enemies, would inevitably have dragged her to ruin again 
and again, but for the fact that she always had near her, 
in moments of weakness or danger, a fixed point to which 



viii INTRODUCTION 

she could turn, a councillor whose gaze was never diverted 
from the ultimate goal, a man whom flattery did not move, 
whom bribery did not buy — wise, steady William Cecil, 
who, to her honour and his, remained her prime adviser 
from the moment of her accession to the day of his death. 
It has happened that most of the historians who have 
dealt in detail with Elizabethan politics, and especially 
with Cecil's share in them, have dwelt mainly upon 
the religious and ecclesiastical aspect of the subject, and 
have usually approached it with a strong doctrinal bias 
on one side or the other. It is true that Cecil's life was 
coeval with the rise and triumph of the great religious 
schism in the Christian faith in England, that in his 
boyhood there was hardly a whisper of revolt against the 
papal supremacy, and that ere he died the Protestant 
Church of England was firmly established, and the country 
freed from the fears of Rome. Upon this text most of 
his biographers have founded their discourse, and have 
regarded the great minister as first and foremost a reli- 
gious reformer. That he was at heart, at all events in 
his later years, sincerely attached to the Protestant faith, 
there is no reason to doubt ; but before all things, he 
was a statesman who sought to raise and strengthen 
England by political means, and used religion, as he 
used other instrumentalities, to attain the object he had 
in view. He was far too prudent to say so, but he pro- 
bably regarded religious dogma in as broad a spirit as 
Catharine de Medici, Henry IV., and Elizabeth herself. 
His youthful training and early circumstances had asso- 
ciated him with an advanced school of thinkers, who had 
naturally adopted the cause of religious reform, con- 
demned by their opponents. The current of events and 
the blindness of the other side identified that party with 
the cause of national independence and prosperity ; and 
for political aims, Cecil made the most of the support to 



INTRODUCTION ix 

be obtained from those who demanded a simpler and 
less rigid form of Christian doctrine than that imposed 
by Rome. But in the party of reform Cecil was always 
the most conservative element. Other councillors might 
be, and were, driven hither and thither by bribery, by 
passion, by a desire to flatter the Queen's caprice, by 
religious zeal or mere ineptitude, but Cecil was judicious, 
well-nigh incorruptible, prudent, patriotic, and clear- 
headed ; and though he was often obliged to dissemble 
and give way, he always returned to his point. Protestant 
zeal must not hurry the Government too far, or too fast, 
against the sworn enemies of Protestantism. England 
must be kept free from entanglements with Rome, but 
she must also avoid as long as possible national warfare 
with Rome's principal supporter ; for Spain was Eng- 
land's buckler against French aggression, and the pos- 
sessor of the rich harbours of the Netherlands where 
English commerce found its main outlet. 

Throughout a long life of ceaseless activity, in which 
he had to deal with ever-varying circumstances and pro- 
blems ; hampered by bitter rivals at home and sleepless 
enemies abroad, Cecil's methods shifted so frequently, 
and apparently so contradictorily, as to have bewildered 
most of those who have essayed to unravel his devious 
diplomacy. But shift as he might, there was ever the 
one stable and changeless principle which underlay all 
his policy, and guided all his actions. He had been 
brought up in the traditional school of English policy 
which regarded the House of Burgundy as a friend, and 
France as the natural enemy whose designs in Scot- 
land and Flanders must be frustrated, or England must 
be politically and commercially ruined. For centuries 
England's standing danger had been her liability to 
invasion by the French over the Scottish border, and 
for the first forty years of Cecil's life the main object of 



x INTRODUCTION 

English statecraft was to break permanently the secular 
connection between Scotland and France, and to weaken 
the latter country by favouring her great rival in Flanders. 

When Spain, under rigid Philip, assumed the cham- 
pionship of extreme Catholicism, and pledged herself to 
root out the reformed doctrines throughout Europe, whilst 
France, on the other hand, was often ruled by Huguenot 
counsels, it will be seen that Cecil's task in endeavouring 
to carry out the traditional policy, was a most difficult 
one, and he alone of Elizabeth's ministers was able to 
preserve his equilibrium in the face of it. Some of them 
went too far; drifted into Spanish pay, or became open 
Catholics and rebels ; others, moved by opposite religious 
zeal, lost sight of the political principle, and were for 
fighting Spain at all times and at any cost. But Cecil, 
though sorely perplexed at times, never lost his judgment. 
The first article in his political creed was distrust of the 
French, and it remained so to the day of his death, though 
France was ruled by the ex-champion of the Huguenots, 
and Spain and England were still at daggers drawn. In 
the first year of Elizabeth's reign Cecil wrote : 1 " France, 
being an ancient enemy of England, seeketh always to 
make Scotland an instrument to exercise thereby their 
malice upon England, and to make a footstool thereof to 
look over England as they may ; " and forty years after- 
wards, when the great minister was on the brink of the 
grave, De Beaumont, the French ambassador, spoke of 
him as still leading " all the old councillors of the Queen 
who have true English hearts; that is to say, who are 
enemies of the welfare and repose of France. " 2 

To allow the French to become dominant in Scotland 
would have made England weak, to have stood by idly 

1 ''Sadler State Papers," vol. i. p. 375. 

2 Memoires sur les affaires d* Angleterre MS. Bibliotheque Nationale. 
Colbert, 35. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

whilst they overcame the Netherlands would have made 
her poor, and to these national reasons for distrust of 
French aims, was added, in Cecil's case, the personal sus- 
picion and dislike bred of early associations and tradition. 
The Queen, on the other hand, could not be expected to 
look upon the French in the same light as her minister. 
She was as determined as he was that the French should 
gain no footing in Flanders or Scotland ; but through the 
critical times of her girlhood France had always stood 
her friend, as Spain had naturally been her enemy. Her 
mother's sympathies had, of course, been entirely French, 
and her own legitimacy and right to rule were as eagerly 
recognised by France as they were sullenly questioned 
by Spain. But when passion or persuasion led her into a 
dangerous course, as they frequently did, she knew that 
Cecil, sagacious, and steady as a rock, would advise her 
honestly ; and sooner or later she would be brought back 
to his policy of upholding Protestantism, whilst endea- 
vouring to evade an open war with the deadly enemy of 
Protestantism, which could only result in strengthening 
France. 

The present work will accordingly aim mainly at pre- 
senting a panorama of Cecil's career as a statesman, whose 
active life was not only coincident with the triumph of 
the Reformation, but also with the making of Modern 
England, and with the establishment of her naval supre- 
macy. In the space available it will be impossible to 
relate in detail the whole of the complicated political 
transactions of the long and important reign of Elizabeth, 
and no attempt will be made to do so. But Cecil, to his 
lasting glory, did more than any other man to guide the 
nation into the groove of future greatness ; and the 
primary object of this book is to trace his personal and 
political influence over the events of his time : to show 
the effects produced by his clear head and steady hand 



xii INTRODUCTION 

on the councils of the able and fortunate sovereign, who 
transformed England from a feeble and distracted, to a 
powerful and united, nation. 

The task of writing the life of Lord Burghley has been 
attempted more than once, but in every case with but 
indifferent success. The failure has certainly not been 
caused by lack of material, for no English statesman was 
ever so indefatigable a correspondent and draftsman as 
Cecil, and the stupendous masses of manuscript left 
behind by him frightened even the indefatigable Camden 
from the work of writing an account of Cecil's ministry 
three centuries ago. " But," he writes, " at my very first 
entrance upon the task, an intricate difficulty did in a 
manner wholly discourage me, for I lighted upon great 
files and heaps of papers and writings of all sorts, . . . 
in searching and turning over whereof, whilst I laboured 
till I sweat again, covered all over with dust, to gather 
fit matter together, . . . that noble lord died, and my in- 
dustry began to flag and wax cold." Strype also, who 
has reproduced so many important documents relating to 
Cecil in his "Annals of the Reformation," and "Eccle- 
siastical Memorials," was preparing materials for a life of 
the statesman, when death stopped his labour. Besides 
several less pretentious works by various authors, and 
the curious contemporary memoirs published in Peck's 
Desiderata Curiosa, a spirited attempt was made seventy 
years ago by Dr. Nares, Regius Professor of History at 
Oxford, to produce a book worthy of the subject. After 
many years of laborious plodding through countless 
thousands of documents, the worthy professor produced 
one of the most ponderous and unreadable books in the 
English language, of which Lord Macaulay made merci- 
less sport in his famous essay on Burghley. " Compared," 
he says, "with the labour of reading through these 
volumes, all other labour, of thieves on the treadmill, of 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

children in factories, of negroes on sugar-plantations, is 
an agreeable recreation. . . . Guicciardini, although cer- 
tainly not the most amusing of writers, is a Herodotus or 
a Froissart when compared with Dr. Nares." 

The embarrassment of riches in the way of material 
is, indeed, the rock upon which most of the serious 
biographers of Cecil have foundered. In the Lansdowne 
MSS., at the British Museum alone, there are 122 folio 
volumes of Burghley manuscripts, which descended 
through the minister's secretary, Sir Michael Hicks, be- 
sides large numbers in the Cotton and Harley collections. 
The Burghley Papers at the Record Office are almost 
innumerable, the foreign documents subsequent to 1577 
being still uncalendared, whilst the priceless collection in 
the possession of Lord Salisbury at Hatfield consists of 
over 30,000 documents, bound in 210 large volumes. 
From comparatively early times many of the more in- 
teresting of these papers have been in print. The Scrinia 
Ceciliana in the third edition of Cabala, " The Compleat 
Ambassador," the " Sadler State Papers," Haynes' and 
Murdin's selections from the Hatfield archives, Forbes' 
" Public Transactions," Birch's " Memoirs of Elizabeth," 
Burgon's " Sir Thomas Gresham," Nicholas' " Sir Chris- 
topher Hatton," Burnet, Collier, Lodge, Strype, Foxe, 
Ellis, the Harleian Miscellany, and Tytler contain a great 
number of original documents from Cecil's collections. 
Above all — since the excellent sketch of Cecil in the 
u Dictionary of National Biography " was written — the 
Historical MSS. Commission have completed the six 
volumes of Calendars of the Hatfield Papers to 1597, 
and the Calendars of Spanish State Papers of Elizabeth 
have been published by the Record Office. By the aid 
of these, and the Domestic and Foreign Calendars of 
State Papers, it is now, for the first time, possible to 
obtain a comprehensive view in an accessible form of 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

thousands of documents which have hitherto been difficult 
or impossible to reach ; and obstacles which have marred 
the success of previous labours in the same field, may, 
it is hoped, now be more easily surmountable. The 
sources above mentioned have all been placed under 
contribution for the production of the present summary 
account of Cecil's political life, as well as some un- 
calendared manuscripts kindly placed at my disposal by 
the Marquis of Salisbury. 

I cannot hope to have succeeded entirely where others 
have failed, but I have not spared time or labour in the 
attempt ; and I have endeavoured, at least, to prevent my 
view of the events themselves from being obstructed by 
the documents which relate to them ; and, so far as is 
possible in a short readable book, to present a general 
view of the policy of the reign of Elizabeth, especially 
with relation to the influence exerted upon it by her 
principal minister. 

I have written with no preconceived theory to prove, 
no religious or political aim to serve, or doctrine to 
establish. My only desire has been to follow facts 
whithersoever they may lead me, and to pourtray a 
lofty personality who has left an enduring impress on 
the history of his country. I have not sought to pre- 
sent Cecil as a demigod — or even as a genius of the first 
class — as most of his biographers have done. The ways 
and methods of Elizabethan statesmen need not be con- 
cealed or apologised for because they do not square with 
the ethics of to-day. At a time when the bulk of the 
English people cheerfully changed their faith four times 
in a generation to please their rulers, it would be absurd 
to hold up to especial obloquy a minister for having per- 
secuted at one time a religion which at another time he 
professed. The final triumph of England in that struggle 
of giants was won by statesmen who, like their mistress, 



INTRODUCTION xv 

owed as much to what we should now call their failings 
as they did to their virtues. Their vacillation and ter- 
giversation in the face of rigid and stolid opponents were 
main elements of their success. Cecil was by far the 
most honest and patriotic of them ; but he, too, was 
a man of his age, and must be judged from its stand- 
point — not from that of to-day. If I have succeeded in 
presenting more clearly than some of my predecessors 
a view of the process by which England was made great, 
the man who, above all others, was instrumental under 
God in making it so, may well be judged by the splendid 
results of his lifelong labour ; and his reputation for reli- 
gious constancy, moral generosity, and political scrupu- 
lousness, placed in the opposite scale, will hardly stir the 
balance. 

MARTIN A. S. HUME 

London, September 1898. 



THE 

GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 

CHAPTER I 

I 5 2 o- I 549 

It may be stated as an historical truism that great organic 
changes in the relationship of human beings towards 
each other are usually preceded by periods of quiescence 
and apparent stability, during which unsuspected forces 
of preparation are at work. When the moment of crisis 
comes, the unthinking marvel that men are ready, as if 
by magic, to accept, and, if need be, to fight and die for, 
the new order of ideas. Although the outward manifes- 
tation of it may be unexpected, yet, in reality, no vast, 
far-reaching revolution in human institutions is sudden : 
only that the short-sightedness of all but the very wisest 
fails to see the signs until the forces are openly arrayed 
and the battle set. 

The period of the struggle for religious reform in 
Europe was preceded by such a process of unconscious 
preparation as this. Over a century elapsed from the 
martyrdom of John Huss before the bold professor of 
Wittemberg dared to denounce the Pope's indulgences. 
It is true that during that century, and before, satirists 
and moralists had often pointed the finger of contumely 
at the corruption of the clergy and the lax discipline of 

A 



2 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [151 7 

the Church, but no word had been raised against her 
doctrines. In the meanwhile, the subterranean process 
which was sapping the foundations of the meek submis- 
sion of old, was progressing apace with the spread of 
printed books and the revival of the study of Greek and 
Hebrew. By the time that Luther first made his daring 
stand, the learning of cultivated laymen, thanks to Eras- 
mus and others, had far outstripped the cramped erudition 
of the friars ; and when at last a churchman thundered 
from the Saxon pulpit his startling doctrine of papal 
fallibility, there were thousands of men throughout 
Europe who were able to do without monkish commen- 
tators, and could read the Scriptures in the original 
tongues, forming their own judgment of right and 
wrong by the unobscured light of the inspired Word 
itself. 

Thus it happened that the cry for radical religious 
reform in 15 17 found a world waiting for it, and in an 
incredibly few years the champions of the old and 
the new had taken sides ready for the struggle which 
was to decide the fate of civilisation for centuries to 
come. By an apparently providential concurrence of 
circumstances, the personal characters and national 
ambitions of rulers at the same period were such as to 
enlist the hardiest and most tenacious of the European 
peoples on the side of freedom from spiritual and intel- 
lectual trammels ; and eventually to ally the idea of 
political emancipation and personal liberty with that 
of religious reform, to the immense strengthening of 
both. The fight was to be a long and varied one ; it 
can hardly, indeed, be looked upon as ended even now. 
Many of the combatants have fainted by the way, and 
both sides have belied their principles again and again ; 
but looking back over the field, we can see the ground 
that has been won, and are assured that in the long-run 



i 5 2o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 3 

the powers of progress must prevail, as we hope and 
believe, to the greater glory of God and the greater 
happiness of men. 

The year 1520 saw the first open marshalling of the 
powers for the great struggle, partly religious and partly 
political, which was to lead to the triumph of the Anglo- 
Saxon race. In England, as yet, there was no whisper 
of revolt against the authority of the papacy. The King 
had just written his book against the new doctrines of 
Luther, which was to gain for him the title of Defender 
of the Faith ; Catharine, the Spanish Queen-Consort, an 
obedient child of the Church, as became the daughter of 
Isabel the Catholic, lived in yet unruffled happiness with 
her husband ; whilst the all-ruling Wolsey was plotting and 
intriguing for the reversion of the triple tiara of St. Peter 
when Pope Leo should die. The first step to the political 
rise of England was the election (June 1519) of young King 
Charles of Spain to the imperial crown of Germany, in 
succession to his grandfather, Maximilian of Hapsburg. 
The marriage of the new Emperor's father, Philip of 
Hapsburg, the heir of Burgundy, with Jane the Mad, 
the heiress of Spain, had joined to her heritage Flanders, 
Holland, and the Franche Comte, and had already upset 
the balance of power. Francis I. had sought to redress 
matters by securing his own election to the empire, but 
he had been frustrated, and he saw a Spanish prince in 
possession of territory on every side of France, shutting 
her in. Naples had been filched by greedy Ferdinand, 
and was now firmly Spanish, as Sicily had been for 
centuries ; the Emperor asserted suzerainty over most 
of Italy, and, above all, over Milan, which Francis him- 
self claimed and occupied. It was clear that the expan- 
sion of France was at an end, and her national decline 
must commence, unless the iron bands braced around 
her by the Hispano-Germanic Empire could be broken 



4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1520 

through. It was then that the importance of England 
as the potential balancing power between the two great 
rivals became evident. Henry VIII. was rich in money, 
able, ambitious, and popular. He had devoted all his 
great energy to improving the resources of his country, 
and to reconstructing his navy ; besides which he held 
Calais, the key to the frontier battle-ground of Flanders 
and France, and was as fully conscious of his rising 
importance as he was determined to carry it to the best 
market. 

It had been for many years the main point of English 
foreign policy to counteract the unification of France by 
maintaining a close connection with the House of Bur- 
gundy, as possessors of Flanders and Holland, the prin- 
cipal markets for the English wool and cloth. This 
policy had drawn England and Spain together when 
the inheritances of Spain and Burgundy were united, and 
it had also led to the marriage of Catharine of Aragon 
in England. But Henry's desire to hold the balance, 
and Wolsey's greed and ambition, had made them willing 
to listen to the blandishments of Francis, and to consent 
to the distrustful and pompous comedy of the. Field of 
the Cloth of Gold. Charles, the new Emperor, had shown 
his appreciation of the threatened friendship between 
France and England, by his Quixotic rush over to Eng- 
land to see Henry earlier in the year (1520). His stay 
was a short one, only four days, but it was sufficient for 
his purpose. He could promise more to Wolsey than 
Francis could, and Henry's vanity was flattered at the 
young Emperor's chivalrous trust in him. When Charles 
sailed from Dover, he knew full well that, however 
splendid and friendly might be the interviews of the 
Field of the Cloth of Gold, Francis would not have 
the King of England on his side in the inevitable coming 
war, even if he did not fight against him. 



i 5 2o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 5 

This was the condition of English politics at home 
and abroad when William Cecil first saw the light at 
Bourne, in Lincolnshire, on the 13th September 1520. 
He came into the world at the opening of a new epoch 
both for his country and for the general advancement of 
civilisation, and before he left it the modern dispensation 
was firmly planted, in England at least, owing in no 
small measure to his sagacity and statecraft. 

In his after life, when he had become famous, Cecil 
drew up in his own hand a private journal (now in the 
British Museum), in which he endeavoured to set down 
in chronological order the principal events of his life. It 
will be seen, by the specimen line reproduced under the 
portrait, that he was in some confusion as to the year of 
his birth and other events of his earlier years. The entry 
relating to his birth, as first made, is against the year 1521, 
and reads, " 13 Sep. Ego Gulielm. Cecill nat s su, apud 
Burne in Com Lincolni ; " but afterwards the date was 
crossed out and entered above the line, so as to correspond 
with the year 1520, whilst the blank against the year 1521 
is filled in with the mention of the arrival of the Emperor 
Charles V. in London on the 5th June of that year. This 
also is a mistake, as the Emperor's second visit was in 
June 1522. The entry with regard to Cecil's becoming a 
student at Gray's Inn in 1541 mentions that he was at 
that time twenty-one years of age, so that it may be con- 
cluded that the year of his birth was really 1520, although 
1521 has usually been given by his earlier biographers. 
There is at Hatfield a little book which appears not to have 
been noticed or calendared, but which is, nevertheless, 
interesting for purposes of comparison, as I conclude it 
to have been the foundation or rough draft of the journal. 
It is a small perpetual calendar bound up with a custom- 
house tariff: "Imprinted at London at the Longe Shop 
adjoining St. Mildred's Church in the Pultrie, London. 



6 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1520 

by John Aide, anno 1562." In this calendar the entry 
relating to his birth runs thus : " 13 th Sep. 1521. Ego 
Gul. Cecill natus su : 13 Sept. 1521, between 3 and 4 
P.M. ; " whilst his entering Gray's Inn is stated as follows : 
" 6 th May, 33 Henry VIII. Gul. Cecill veni ad Graye's 
Inn." No age is given in this case, so that it may pro- 
bably be concluded that on copying the entries into his 
permanent journal he recollected the age at which he 
became a law student, and then saw that he was born a 
year earlier than he had originally thought, and at once 
corrected the statement he had written. 

The question of his remote ancestry is of no great 
importance to the purpose of the present book, although 
Cecil himself, who throughout his life was a diligent 
student of heraldry and genealogy, devoted considerable 
attention to it ; and Camden was at the pains to trace 
his descent to a Robert Sitsilt, a gentleman of Wales in 
the time of William Rufus (1091). It may be sufficient 
for our purpose to adhere to a written pedigree at Hat- 
field House annotated and continued by William Cecil, 
which proves, so far as such documents can, that the 
statements made by his opponents to the end of his 
life that he was of " base origin," were entirely untrue. 
This pedigree traces the descent of the statesman's great- 
grandfather Richard Sitsilt, who died in 1508 possessing 
considerable estates in Monmouthshire and Hereford- 
shire, to the ancient Welsh family of Sitsilt ; but its 
interest and trustworthiness really commences with 
Cecil's own continuation of the pedigree from his 
great-grandfather to himself. At the end of the en- 
grossed genealogy he has written, " Here endeth ye old 
Roole in parchm*," and " The contynuance of ye line in 
ye heyres males untill this yere 1565." This continua- 
tion shows that his grandfather David, the third son of 
Richard Sitsilt, came across England and settled at 



i5*o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 7 

Stamford, 1 whilst his elder brothers remained in posses- 
sion of the ancestral acres at Alterennes, Herefordshire. 
In the perpetual calendar at Hatfield, this David's death 
is recorded by his grandson as follows : " David Cecill 
avus meus obiit Oct. 27 Hen. VIII." 2 (1535). He was an 
alderman of Stamford, and appears to have possessed 
a good estate in Lincolnshire, which he purchased in 
1507 ; and was appointed in 1512 Water-bailiff of Wittle- 
sea Mere, in Huntingdonshire, and Keeper of the Swans 
throughout all the fen country. 

Soon after the accession of Henry VIII., David Cecil, 
the substantial Lincolnshire squire, became a courtier, 
and was made one of the King's serjeants-at-arms. 
Thenceforward royal grants and offices came to him 
plentifully, stewardships of crown lands, the escheator- 
ship of Lincoln, the shrievalty of Northampton, and 
the like, which must have added greatly both to his 
wealth and his importance. No indication has ever been 
given of the reasons for his court favour, but it may 
be conjectured to have arisen from the friendship of his 
powerful neighbour Lord Willoughby d'Eresby of Grims- 
thorpe, who married Maria de Sarmiento, Queen Catha- 
rine's dearest friend and inseparable companion ; as the 
connection between Lady Willoughby's daughter, the 
Duchess of Suffolk, and William Cecil, remained almost 
on a sisterly footing throughout the lady's life. In any 

1 Naunton, in Fragmenia Regalia, says that he was personally acquainted 
with the senior branch of Cecil's family in Herefordshire, which was of no 
mean antiquity : but he speaks of David Cecil, the statesman's grandfather, as 
M being exposed, and sent to the city, as poor gentlemen used to do their 
sons, became to be a rich man on London Bridge, and purchased (an estate) 
in Lincolnshire, where this man (i.e. Sir William) was born. '\ Cecil's enemies 
in his lifetime, especially Father Persons, spoke of David Cecil as having been 
an innkeeper at Stamford ; but this is very improbable, though he may well 
have owned inns in the town, of which he was an alderman. 

2 The date of his death in the "journal " at Hatfield is given as 1536, and 
Collins states it to have happened in 1541, his will being proved in that year. 



8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1535 

case, David's influence at court was sufficient to obtain 
for his son Richard, the statesman's father, a succession 
of lucrative offices. He was one of the King's pages, 
and is said to have attended the sovereign to the Field 
of the Cloth of Gold a few months before William Cecil 
was born, and he subsequently became Groom of the 
Wardrobe, and Yeoman of the Robes. He, like the rest 
of the King's favourites, fattened on the spoils of the 
monasteries, and stewardships of royal manors showered 
upon him. He was Constable of Warwick Castle, Bailiff 
of Wittlesea Mere, and Keeper of the Swans, like his 
father, and Sheriff of Rutland ; and to add to his pro- 
sperity, he married the heiress of William Heckington of 
Bourne, who brought to him the fine property of Burghley 
adjoining his own estates at Stamford. When, therefore, 
William Cecil was born in the house of his maternal 
grandfather at Bourne, he was prospective heir to broad 
acres in a half-dozen counties, with almost the certainty 
of advancement through court influence in whatever 
career he might choose. 

Little is known, or need be told, of Cecil's early youth. 
He went to school successively at Grantham and Stam- 
ford, and in May 1535, when he was fifteen years of age, 
entered St. John's College, Cambridge, to embark upon 
deeper studies. His anonymous biographer, who lived 
in his household in his later years, and can only have 
spoken by hearsay of his college days, says 1 that he was 
so " diligent and paineful as he hired a bell-ringer to call 
him up at foure of the clock every morninge ; with which 
early rising and late watchinge, and continuall sitting, 
there fell abundance of humours into his leggs, then very 
hardly cured, which was thought one of the original 
causes of his gowt." It is, at all events, certain that he 
threw himself with avidity into the studies which were 

1 Peck, Desiderata Curiosa. 



i 5 35] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 9 

then especially claiming the attention of scholars, and 
in a very short time became remarkable for his wide 
knowledge of Greek especially, and for his extraordinary 
general aptitude and application. It is said, indeed, that 
he gratuitously read the Greek lecture at St. John's before 
he was nineteen years of age.X By good fortune it hap- 
pened that the University was at the time of his resi- 
dence the centre of a new intellectual movement, the 
young leaders of which at once became Cecil's chosen 
friends. Already the new learning had taken fast hold 
of the brighter spirits, and although Luther's works were 
openly forbidden, they were secretly read by a little 
company of students who met for the purpose at a 
tavern in Cambridge called the White Horse ; Erasmus 
had left memories of his teaching behind him at Queen's, 
and Melancthon's books were eagerly studied. A bril- 
liant young King's scholar, named Thomas Smith, read 
the Greek lectures at Queen's College, and assembled 
under him a band of scholars, such as have rarely been 
united at one time. Cheke, Ascham, Matthew Parke?', 
Nicholas Bacon, Bill, Watson, and Haddon, amongst 
many others, who afterwards achieved fame, were Cecil's 
intimate companions-c and Cheke especially, who be- 
longed to the same college, and was somewhat older, 
systematically helped him, doubtless for a considera- 
tion. Cheke's capacity was almost as remarkable as that^ 
of his fellow King's scholar, Smith. He was poor, but of 
ancient family, the son of a college-beadle whose widow 
on his death had to maintain her children by keeping 
a wine-shop in the town ; although he subsequently 
became the Regius Professor of Greek, and tutor to 
Edward VI., and, by the aid of Smith, reformed the 
vicious pronunciation of Latin and Greek upon which 
the Churchmen had insisted. Humble John Cheke was 
Cecil's bosom friend, and to his mother's wine-shop the 



io THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [i 54 i 

rich courtier's son must often have been a welcome 
visitor. 

Details of his daily life are wanting, but he must 
have been a well-conducted youth, ; for the amount of 
study he got through was prodigious. Catharine de 
Medici, years afterwards (1563), spitefully told Smith — 
then Sir Thomas, and an ambassador — that Cecil had 
had a son at the age of fifteen or sixteen, 1 to which 
Smith, who must have known whether it was true or 
not, made no reply ; but she probably spoke at random, 
and referred to Cecil's early marriage. He left the 
University after six years' residence, without taking his 
degree. Whether his father withdrew him because of 
his close intimacy with the family of the wine-shop keeper, 
is not known, but is probable. In his own hand he 
states that he was entered a student of Gray's Inn, in 
May 1541, and that on the 8th August of the same year 
he married Mary Cheke, of Cambridge, the sister of his 
friend. 2 The next entry in the diary records, under date 
of 5th May 1542, the birth of his eldest son, Thomas 
Cecil, his own age at the time being twenty-two (Natus 
est mihi Thomas Cecil films ; cum essem natus annos 
xxii.). In the Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield it is 
mentioned that the child was born at Cambridge, so 
that it may be assumed that Cecil's wife still lived with 

1 "Courtships of Queen Elizabeth." 

2 That Cecil's father was much displeased at his marriage is seen by a 
letter from Alford, his steward, at Burghley, after the death of Richard Cecil. 
Mrs. Cecil, the widow (to whom Burghley belonged), appears to have been an 
extremely self-willed old lady, and refused to exhibit her husband's will to 
her son's agents. In conversation with one of them, she said she knew that 
her husband had made a will (besides the one in her possession) touching his 
goods, when he went to Boulogne (i.e. 1544). Alford says: "Thinking this 
might have been about the time he conceived displeasure against you for your 
first marriage, I rode off immediately to the attorney who, according to Mrs. 
Cecil, held it, in order, if possible, to learn the contents of the will in your 
(Cecil's) interests " (Alford to Cecil, 9th April 1553 ; Hatfield Papers). 



1543] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY n 

her own people. The next entry to that relating the 
birth of the future Lord Exeter, records the death of his 
young mother thus: " 22 Feb. 1543, Maria uxor mortua 
est in Domine, hora 2 a nocte," 1 and with this bare 
statement the story of Cecil's first marriage ends, though 
he never lost touch with or interest in the Cheke family, 
who appear to have been equally attached to him. 

It may be questioned whether Cecil went deeply into 
the study of law at Gray's Inn. It was usual to enter 
young gentlemen at one of the inns of court to give 
them some definite standing or pursuit in London, rather 
than with a view of their becoming practising lawyers. 
It is almost certain from a statement of his house- 
hold biographer, 2 that such was the case with Cecil. 
" He alwaies praised the study of the common law 
above all other learning : saying ' that if he shoulde 
begyene againe he would follow that studie.'" He 
probably passed much of his time about the court ; and 
his domestic tells a story of him in this connection, 
which may well be true, but which rests upon his 
authority alone. He was, he says, in the presence- 
chamber, where he met two chaplains of O'Neil, who 
was then (1542) % on a visit to the King; "and talking 
long with them in Lattin, he fell in disputation with 
the priests, wherein he showed so great learning and 
witt, as he proved the poore priests to have neither, 
who weare so putt down as they had not a word to 
saie, but flung away no less discontented than ashamed 
to be foiled in such a place by so younge a berdless 
yewth." 3 The chronicler goes on to say that the King 

1 Perpetual Calendar MS., Halfield. 

2 Desiderata Curiosa. This is confirmed by a letter at Hatfield from 
Griffin, the Queen's attorney (27th April 1557), sa\ing, " 1 am sorry that you 
never were of Gray's Inne nor can skill of no lawe, " by which it is clear that 
Cecil was never called to the bar, and probably never seriously studied law. 

3 Ibid. 



12 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1545 

being told of this, Cecil was summoned to the royal 
presence, and delighted Henry with his answers ; Richard 
Cecil, the father, being directed by the King to seek out 
some office or favour which might be bestowed upon his 
clever son. The Yeoman of the Robes, we may be sure, 
was nothing loath, and petitioned in William Cecil's 
name for the reversion of the office of custos brevium in 
the Court of Common Pleas, which was duly granted, 
and was the first of the future great statesman's many 
offices of profit received from the Crown. 

At about the same time, or shortly afterwards (1544), 
Cecil's connection with the court was made closer by the 
appointment of his brother-in-law, John Cheke, to be tutor 
to the young Prince Edward, and of his friend, Roger 
Ascham, to a similar position to the Princess Elizabeth. 
A general supervision over the studies of Prince Edward 
was entrusted to his governor, Sir Anthony Cooke, who 
was one of the pioneers of the new learning, and a 
member of the Protestant party in Henry's court led 
by Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford, Prince Edward's 
uncle. The secular educational movement, which was 
now in full swing, had spread to the training of girls 
of the upper classes. The working of tapestry and the 
cares of a household were no longer regarded as the sole 
ends and aims of a lady's life, and it was a fashion at 
court for Greek and Latin, as well as modern languages, 
to be imparted to the daughters of gentlemen of the 
newer school. Amongst the first of the ladies to be thus 
highly educated were the four daughters of Sir Anthony 
Cooke, who were afterwards to be celebrated as the 
most learned women in England, at a time when educa- 
tion had become a feminine fad under the learned 
Elizabeth. To the eldest of these paragons of learn- 
ing, Mildred Cooke, aged twenty, William Cecil was 
married on the 21st December 1545, and thus bound 



i 5 47] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 13 

himself by another link to the rising progressive party 
at court. 1 «*>. 

Already the struggle of the Reformation on the Con- 
tinent had begun. The Emperor, alarmed at the firm 
stand made by the Protestant princes of the empire, 
had hastily made peace with Francis I., and had left his 
ally the King of England in the lurch. The spectre of 
Lutheranism had drawn together the life-long rivals with 
the secret object of crushing religious dissent, which 
struck at the root of their temporal authority. The ambi- 
tion of Maurice of Saxony, and disunion in the Protes- 
tant ranks, enabled Charles to destroy the Smalkaldic 
league, and in April 1547, after the battle of Muhlberg, 
to impose his will upon the empire. Henry VIII. had 
deeply resented the desertion of his ally Charles V., when 
in December 1544 he had been left to fight Francis alone, 
and during the closing years of his life the Protestant 
influence in his Councils grew stronger than ever. The 
old King died on the 28th January 1547. Parliament 
was sitting at the time, but the King's death was kept 
secret for nearly three days, and it was Monday, 31st 
January, before Lord Chancellor Wriothesley, his voice 
broken by sobs, informed the Houses of Parliament that 
King Edward VI. had ascended the throne, under the 

1 Roger Ascham, writing to Sturmius (August 1550), says : "But there are 
two English ladies whom I cannot omit to mention. . . . One is Jane Grey 
. . . the other Mildred Cooke, who understands and speaks Greek like 
English, so that it may be doubted whether she is most happy in the posses- 
sion of this surpassing degree of knowledge, or in having for her preceptor 
and father Sir Anthony Cooke, whose singular erudition caused him to be 
joined with John Cheke in the office of tutor to the King ; or finally, in having 
become the wife of William Cecil, lately appointed Secretary of State : a 
young man, indeed, but mature in wisdom, and so deeply skilled, both in 
letters and affairs, and endued with such moderation in the exercise of public 
offices, that to him would be awarded, by the consenting voice of Englishmen, 
the fourfold praise attributed to Pericles by his rival Thucydides : ' To know 
all that is fitting, to be able to apply what he knows, to be a lover of his 
country, and superior to money.' " 



i 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1547 

regency, during his minority, of the Council nominated 
in King Henry's will. The star of Seymour and the Pro- 
testants had risen, and soon those papistically inclined, 
like Wriothesley, and Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 
shed tears indeed for the master they had lost, schismatic 
though he was. 

With such friends in the dominant party as Cooke, 
Cheke, Cranmer, and Seymour, it is not surprising that 
William Cecil's career emerged from obscurity and un- 
certainty almost as soon as the new Government was 
established. For a young man of twenty-seven he had 
already not done badly. His father was still alive, 
but in the first year of Edward VI. the office of custos 
breviuniy of which the old King had given him the rever- 
sion five years before, fell in, and this brought him, in 
salary and fees, ^240 per annum (£6, 13s. 4d. salary and 
rest fees at the four law terms), and in addition to this, 
according to his household biographer, the Lord Pro- 
tector appointed him his Master of Requests soon after 
assuming power. That he held some such office from 
the summer of 1547 is certain, as from that date forward 
great numbers of letters exist written to him in relation 
to suits and petitions addressed to the Protector. The 
office, as then constituted, appears to have been an inno- 
vation, as being attached to Somerset's personal house- 
hold, 1 and intended to relieve him from the trouble of 
himself examining petitions and suits. In any case 
Cecil's assiduity and patience appear thus early to have 
been acknowledged, to judge by the tone of most of his 
correspondents, many of whom belonged to a much 
more exalted social position than himself. In June 1547 
Sir Thomas Darcy informs him 2 that (evidently by order) 
he had inquired into the love affair between " Mistress 
Dorothy" and the young Earl of Oxford — who was a 

1 Desiderata Curiosa, and Camden. 2 State Papers, Dom., 1547-80. 



i 5 47] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 15 

ward — and desires to know whether the Protector wishes 
the match to be prevented or not ; and in the following 
month Lady Browne wrote to him in terms of intimate 
friendship, begging him to use his influence with Somer- 
set to appoint her brother to the coming expedition to 
Scotland. 1 

The master and fellows of his old college, St. John's, 
too, were anxious to propitiate the rising official and to 
bespeak his interest in favour of their foundation, 2 and 
the widowed Duchess of Suffolk (Lady Willoughby) 
consulted him in all her difficulties. The war with 
France was suspended, though the English forces hold- 
ing Boulogne were closely beleaguered, and Somerset's 
greed was diverting the money which should have been 
spent in war preparations ; but in pursuance of the tradi- 
tional policy of England, it became a question almost of 
national existence when it was seen that the French 
intrigues for the marriage of the child Queen of Scots 
and the final suppression of the rising reform party in 
Scotland were likely to succeed. Arran had signed the 
treaty with Henry for the marriage of Edward and 
Mary ; but he, and especially the Queen-mother, Mary 
of Lorraine, had resisted the deportation of the infant 
Queen to England. It is possible that some arrange- 
ment might have been arrived at had not the ill-advised 
murder of Cardinal Beaton and the subsequent anarchy 
given to the new King of France, Henry II., an excuse 
for armed interference in protection of the Catholic 
party. Then it became incumbent upon the Protector 
to fight the Scots at all hazards, or French influence 
over the Border threatened to become permanent ; a 
double danger, now that the religious question tended 
to alienate England from her secular alliance with the 

1 Ibid., and Tytler. 

2 December 1547, Lansdowne MSS., 2, 16. 



1 6 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [i 54 8 

House of Burgundy. When Somerset made his rapid 
march upon Scotland with an army of 18,000 men, 
supported by a powerful fleet, in September 1547, his 
trusted Cecil attended him in the capacity appar^xidy 
of provost-marshal, in conjunction with the chronicler 
of the campaign, William Patten. 1 The decisive battle 
of Pinkie was fought on the 10th September 1547, and 
was in a great measure won by the dash, at a critical 
moment, of the Spanish and Italian auxiliaries whom 
Somerset had enlisted. According to the " household" 
historian so often quoted, 2 Cecil narrowly escaped death 
from a cannon shot at Pinkie, but no other mention of 
the fact is to be found. It has been doubted whether at 
this time he held still the office of Master of Requests, 
in which he is said to have been succeeded by his old 
college friend Sir Thomas Smith, 3 but there was no 
break in his close connection in some capacity with 
the Protector. About five months after Pinkie, in a 
letter to Lord Cobham, Somerset calls him " my servant 
William Cecill," 4 and refers to letters written to him 
on his behalf ; and in June 1548 the powerful Earl of 
Warwick, who was soon to supplant Somerset, writes to 
Cecil, almost humbly thanking him for forwarding some 
request of his to the Protector. 5 

Cecil's position, however, shortly after this becomes 
clearly defined, and his personality emerges into full day- 
light. Against the year 1548 in his journal, the only 
entry is as follows : " Mes. Sep. co-optatus su in of m 
Secretary y This has often given rise to confusion as to 

1 Diarium Expeditionis Scotica. 2 Desiderata Curiosa. 

3 This is the assertion made by Nares, but it is very questionably correct, 
as a letter dated ist July 1548 from Sir Thomas Smith in Brussels (State 
Papers, Foreign) is addressed to Mr. Cecil, Master of Requests to the Lord 
Protector's Grace, and a similar letter from Fisher at Stamford on the 27th 
July 1548 bears the same superscripture (State Papers, Dom.). 

4 Harl. MSS., 284. & State Papers, Dom. 



i 5 49] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 17 

the date of his first appointment as Secretary of State, 
but there is now no room for doubt that the office to 
which this entry refers is that of Secretary to Somerset ; 
and the appointment, like that of Master of Requests, 
was part of the Protector's system of surrounding him- 
self with a household as near as possible modelled on 
that of the King. 

Thenceforward everything that did not strictly apper- 
tain to the official Secretaries of State went through the 
hands of Cecil, who in the meanwhile was imbibing the 
traditions of statecraft which were to guide him through 
life. Already the cabal against Somerset had been in 
progress before he went to Scotland, and had caused 
him to hurry back before he gained the full fruits of his 
victory at Pinkie. Mary of Lorraine and the Scottish 
nobles had almost unanimously rallied now to the French 
side, and had agreed to give the young Queen in marriage 
to the Dauphin, whilst strong reinforcements were sent 
to Scotland from France. Bound though he was to the 
extreme Protestant party, Somerset was therefore obliged 
to turn to the arch-enemy of Protestantism, the Emperor, 
for support and assistance. Charles had his hands full 
with his vast new projects of universal domination for 
his son, and was postponing the inevitable war with 
France as long as possible, and consequently turned a 
deaf ear to Somerset's approaches. Public discontent, 
artfully encouraged by the Protector's enemies, grew 
daily more dangerous. His brother, the Lord Admiral, 
had sought to depose him, and fell a victim to his own 
foolishness and ambition (20th March 1549). The attempt 
to interfere with the religious service in the house of the 
Princess Mary made Somerset even more unpopular, 
alienated the Emperor still further, and enraged those 
who yet clung to the remnants of the old faith. Then 
came the great rising in the West, the revolt of the 

B 



1 8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1549 

commons throughout Eastern and Central England 
against the enclosures carried out by the land-grabbing 
crew that surrounded Somerset. In April 1549 Cecil 
was trying to obtain a grant of the rectory and manor of 
Wimbledon, in which he eventually succeeded, and he 
appears to have purchased at the same time some fen 
lands near Spalding ; but although he was in the midst 
of affairs, and must have been the Protector's right hand 
in most things, he was sagacious enough at so dangerous 
a time to keep to the routine work of his office, and 
avoided all responsibility on his own account. 

When Warwick came back from his ruthless campaign 
against the peasants of Norfolk, flushed with an easy 
victory, the idol of a discontented and partly foreign 
soldiery, the time was ripe for him to strike his blow. 
Gardiner and Bonner were in the Tower, the Catholic 
party were being harried and persecuted throughout the 
country, the French and Scots in Scotland were now 
strong and invincible, the French fleet dominated the 
Channel, the town of Boulogne was known to be un- 
tenable ; and, above all, an unpaid victorious soldiery 
looked to Warwick as their champion. Warwick him- 
self laid the blame for all troubles and shortcomings 
upon the Protector, and summoning the officers of his 
army to Ely Place, constituted himself their spokesman 
for obtaining their pay. Through Wriothesley — now 
Southampton — Somerset's enemy, he persuaded the 
Catholics that he disapproved of the religious pressure 
that was being exercised. The first step taken openly 
for the overthrow of the Protector appears to be a 
letter written by Warwick to Cecil, 1 on the 14th Septem- 
ber 1549, which shows, amongst other things, the high 
esteem in which the secretary was held. " To my very 
loving friend, Mr Cecille," it runs, — " These shall be to 

1 State Papers, Dom., and also in Tytler. 



i 5 49] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 19 

desire you to be an intercessor to my Lord's Grace that 
this bearer, Thomas Drury, captain of nine-score foot- 
men, serving the King's Majesty in Norfolk, should 
receive for them his pay for the space of two months." 
Warwick knew full well that no money would be forth- 
coming for these men's pay, and that the Protector was 
already being deserted by the councillors, who were 
finding excuses for meeting with Warwick at Ely Place 
rather than with Somerset at Hampton Court. At length 
the Protector could shut his eyes no longer to the deser- 
tion. The only councillors who were at Hampton Court 
with him were Cranmer, Sir William Paget, Sir William 
Petre, and Sir Thomas Smith, Secretaries of State, and 
his own secretary, William Cecil. The meetings at Ely 
Place and the growing storm against him found Somerset 
unprotected and unprepared. On the 1st October he 
issued a proclamation calling upon the lieges to muster 
and defend the King ; but most of his advisers near him 
deprecated the use of force, which they knew would be 
fruitless against Warwick and the troops, and his divided 
councils only resulted in the dissemination of anonymous 
handbills and circulars stating that the King's person 
was in danger from Warwick, and the summoning of 
such nobles as were thought most likely to be favourable 
to the Protector's cause. Secretary Petre, who had 
advocated an agreement, was on the 7th October sent 
to London to confer with Warwick, but he betrayed his 
trust and returned no more. The King and the Protector 
had in the meanwhile removed to Windsor for greater 
security ; but Warwick had gained the Tower and had 
conciliated the city of London, and it was clear to all 
now, that Somerset's power was gone. All fell away 
from him, except only Sir Thomas Smith. The two 
principal generals in arms, Lords Russell and Herbert, 
rallied to Warwick. Cranmer and Paget, it is true, 



20 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1549 

remained by the side of the Protector, but, like Petre, 
they played him false. No word or sign is given of 
Cecil, though he too remained with his master ; but it 
is significant that all the letters to Warwick at the 
time are in the handwriting of Sir Thomas Smith, and 
at this moment of difficulty and danger sagacious Cecil 
recedes into the position of a private secretary, sheltered 
behind the responsibility of his master. 

In vain Somerset, at the prompting of Cranmer and 
Paget, sought to make terms with Warwick. Finding 
that Petre did not return to Windsor, but that the Lords 
in London demanded unconditional submission, the 
Protector, in the name of the King, sent Sir Philip Hoby 
on the 8th October with an appeal ad misericordiam to 
Warwick. " Marry," says the letter, " to put himself 
simply into your hands, having heard as he and we 
have, without knowing upon what conditions, is not 
reasonable. Life is sweet, my Lords, and they say you 
do seek his blood and his death . . . Wherefore, good 
my Lords, we beseech you again and again, if you 
have conceived any such determination, to put it out 
of your heads, and incline your hearts to kindness and 
humanity, remembering that he hath never been cruel 
to any of you, and why should you be cruelly minded 
to him." 1 " 

This appeal was supported by a passionate prayer 
from Smith to Petre for clemency to the Protector. 
But Hoby also played false, and delayed his return 
until Warwick had secured the formal adhesion of 
Russell and Herbert. He then returned to Windsor 
with Warwick's secret ultimatum to Cranmer, Smith, 
and Paget, warning them to desert the Protector, or be 
prepared to share his fate. Cranmer and Paget gave 
way, and washed their hands of the betrayal ; Smith 

1 State Papers, Dom. 



1549] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 21 

stood firm, and faced the consequence ; whilst Cecil 
discreetly retired into the background, and apparently 
did nothing, though he was certainly present when 
Hoby delivered his official message, solemnly promising 
that no harm was intended, or would be done, to 
Somerset or his friends ; " upon this all the aforenamed 
there present wept for joy, and prayed for the Lords. 
Mr. Comptroller (Paget) fell down on his knees, and 
clasped the Duke about the knees, and weeping said, 
1 O ! my Lord, ye see now what my Lords be.' " Paget's 
crocodile tears were hardly dry before he sent a servant 
post-haste to London, saying that the Protector was now 
off his guard, and might easily be seized. The next day 
Somerset was a prisoner, and three days afterwards was 
in the Tower. Smith, Cecil, Thynne, and Stanhope were 
placed under arrest in their own apartments, whilst 
Cranmer, Paget, and Petre reaped the reward of their 
apostasy. 1 

When the Protector was sent to the Tower, all of his 
friends were made his fellow-prisoners except Cecil. 
Smith was dismissed from his offices, and threatened 
with the extreme penalty for treason ; but Cecil, the 
Protector's right hand, through whom all his patronage 
had passed, escaped punishment at the time 2 (13th Octo- 
ber 1549). Warwick was apparently an old friend of 
his father, 8 and had unquestionably a great opinion of 
Cecil's own application and sagacity. This may have 
inclined him to leniency in his case, but for some reason 
not disclosed he was certainly a prisoner in the Tower 
in the following month. In a letter from his friend the 
Duchess of Suffolk, dated 16th November 1549 (Lans- 

1 The correspondence will be found in Ellis's original letters, and State 
Papers, Dom., and also in Strype's " Memorials." 

2 Burnet. 

3 State Papers, Dom. : Northumberland to Cecil, 31st May 1552. 



22 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1549 

downe MSS., 2, 24), she condoles with him for " the 
loss of his place in the Duke of Somersets family" 1 but 
says nothing to lead to the idea that he is in prison. But 
in the holograph journal already quoted, there is an 
entry — although, curiously enough, out of its proper 
position, and opposite the year 1547, saying, " Mese 
Noveb a 3 E vi\ fui in Turre ; " and his household 
biographer also records the fact as follows : " In the 
second year of K. Edward VI. he (Cecil) was committed 
to the Tower about the Duke of Somerset's first calling 
in question, remaining there a quarter of a year, and was 
then enlarged ; " but, as has already been explained, this 
life was written in the minister's old age, and as he 
certainly was not in the Tower as a prisoner twice, 
the imprisonment referred to must have been that of 
November 1549 (3rd Edward VI.). There is, in any 
case, a gap in all known records with regard to Cecil 
for several months after Somerset's disgrace, and he 
evidently had no share in public affairs for nearly a year 
after Warwick's (now Northumberland's) rise, during 
which time Sir William Petre and Dr. Wotton — who 
succeeded Smith — were joint Secretaries of State. 

1 This disposes of the suggestion that Cecil was Secretary of State at this 
time. 



CHAPTER II 

1550-1553 

The Catholic party soon found that Northumberland 
had used them only as a cat's-paw to satisfy his ambi- 
tion ; and that where mild Somerset had scourged them 
with whips, he would scourge them with scorpions. 
Gardiner and Bonner were made closer prisoners than 
ever. Princess Mary, who had practically defied Somer- 
set about her Mass, was more sternly dealt with by 
Northumberland, her chaplains imprisoned, and her 
household placed under strict observation ; 1 Latin ser- 
vice was strictly forbidden throughout the realm, altars 
were abolished, and uniformity enforced ; whilst South- 
ampton, who had been largely instrumental in the over- 
throw of Somerset, found, to his dismay, that he had 
laboured in vain so far as he and his co-religionists were 
concerned. There is no reason to doubt that, even thus 
early, Northumberland's ambitious plans were already 
formed. For their success two things were absolutely 
necessary : first, the unanimous support of the Protestant 
party ; and next, a close understanding with France, 
which meant a reversal of the traditional foreign policy 
of this country. The attempt to supersede Mary on the 
death of the King, who was seen to be of short life, 
would be certain to meet with opposition on the part 
of the Emperor, and would necessitate the support of 
France to be successful. Much as Northumberland had 

1 See Correspondence, Lady Mary and the Council. "Foxe'sActs and 

Monuments." 

23 



24 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1550 

denounced the idea of the surrender of Boulogne in the 
time of Somerset, he lost no time in concluding a peace 
by which the town was given up, the necessity for doing 
so being still laid to the charge of his predecessor ; and 
the alliance between France and England, which in- 
cluded Scotland, was nominally made the closer by the 
betrothal of Elizabeth, 1 the eldest daughter of the King 
of France to Edward VI. Soon Somerset, who still had 
many friends amongst Protestants, was released from 
prison, and in more humble guise readmitted to the 
Council. On every hand Northumberland courted 
popularity from all but the extreme Catholics, from 
whom he had nothing but opposition to expect. 

Under the circumstances it was necessary to have by 
his side an experienced Secretary of State of Protestant 
leanings, as well as of assiduity and ability. Petre and 
Wotton were known to be more than doubtful with regard 
to religion ; Smith had made himself impossible by the 
active part he took against Northumberland at the time of 
Somerset's imprisonment. No man was more fitted to 
the post than Cecil, and on the 5th September 1550 he 
was made for the first time Secretary of State. In the 
" perpetual calendar " at Hatfield the entry runs, " 5 Sep. 
4 Ed. VI., apud Oatlands Guil. Cecill admisus secf in 
loco D. Wotton," and the Privy Council book confirms 
this, though the King in his journal gives the date of 
the appointment as the 6th September. Again William 
Cecil emerges from obscurity, and henceforward his 
position is unequivocal. As before, everything seemed 
to pass through his hands. No matter was too small or 
too large to claim his attention. His household biogra- 
pher says of him that he worked incessantly, except at 
meal times, when he unbent and chatted wittily to his 
friends, but never of business. He could, he says, never 

1 She afterwards became the third wife of Philip II. of Spain, 1560. 



1550] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 25 

play any sort of game, took no interest in sport or pas- 
times, his only exercise being riding round his garden 
walks on a little mule. " He was rather meanly statured, 
but well proportioned, very straight and upright, active 
and hardy, until crippled by constant gout." His hair 
and beard were brown, before they became silver-white, 
as they did early in life ; and his carriage and conversation 
were always grave and circumspect. 

If his own conduct was ruled — as some of his actions 
certainly were — by the maxims which in middle age he 
laid down for his favourite son, he must have been a 
marvel of prudence and wisdom. Like the usual recom- 
mendations of age to youth, many of these precepts 
simply inculcate moderation, religion, virtue, and other 
obviously good qualities ; but here and there Cecil's own 
philosophy of life peeps out, and some of the reasons 
of his success are exhibited, " Let thy hospitality be 
moderate, . . . rather plentiful than sparing, for I never 
knew any man grow poor by keeping an orderly table. 
. . . Beware thou spendest not more than three of four 
parts of thy revenue, and not above a third part of that 
in thy house." "That gentleman who sells an acre of 
land sells an ounce of credit, for gentility is nothing else 
but ancient riches." " Suffer not thy sons to cross the 
Alps, for they shall learn nothing there but pride, blas- 
phemy, and atheism ; and if by travel they get a few 
broken languages, they shall profit them nothing more 
than to have one meat served up in divers dishes. Neither 
train them up in wars, for he that sets up to live by 
that profession can hardly be an honest man or a good 
Christian." "Beware of being surety for thy best friends; 
he that payeth another man's debts seeketh -his own 
decay." " Be sure to keep some great man thy friend, 
but trouble him not with trifles ; compliment him often 
with many, yet small, gifts." "Towards thy superiors 



26 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1550 

be humble, yet generous ; with thine equals familiar, yet 
respectful ; towards thine inferiors show much humanity, 
and some familiarity, as to bow the body, stretch forth 
the hand, and to uncover the head." " Trust not any 
man with thy life, credit, or estate, for it is mere folly 
for a man to enthral himself to his friend." Such 
maxims as these evidently enshrine much of his own 
temper, and throughout his career he rarely seems to 
have violated them. His was a selfish and ungenerous 
gospel, but a prudent and circumspect one. 

From the first days of his appointment as Secretary 
of State, the Duchess of Suffolk was again his constant 
correspondent. As she was one of the first to condole 
with him on his misfortune, she was early to con- 
gratulate him on "the good exchanges he had made, 
and on having come to a good market " ; x and thence- 
forward all the Lincolnshire gossip from Grimsthorpe 
and Tattershall reached the Secretary regularly, with 
many Lincolnshire petitions, and much business in the 
buying and leasing of land by Cecil in the county, 
although his father lived until the following year, 
1552. 2 His erudite wife, of whom he always speaks with 
tender regard, seems to have kept up a correspondence 
in Greek with their friend, Sir Thomas Morysine, the 
English Ambassador to the Emperor, and with the learned 
Joannes Sturmius, to which several references are made 
in Morysine's eccentric and affected letters to Cecil in 
the State Papers, Foreign. 

The letters of Morysine and Mason, the Ambassador 
to France, to Cecil are of more importance as giving 
a just idea of Northumberland's policy abroad than 
are their despatches to the Council. The Protestant 
princes were already recovering their spirits after the 

1 State Papers, Dom. : Duchess of Suffolk to Cecil, 2nd October 1550, 

2 Or 1553, according to the Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield. 



1 55 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 27 

defeat of Muhlberg, and the Emperor was again faced 
by persistent opposition in the Diet. Henry II., having 
now made sure of Northumberland's necessary adhesion 
to him, once more launched against the empire the 
forces of the Turks in the Mediterranean, whilst French 
armies invaded Italy and threatened Flanders. To the 
old-fashioned English diplomatists, this driving of the 
Emperor into a corner was a subject of alarm. 
Wotton, in a letter to Cecil (2nd January 155 1), ex- 
presses the opinion that an attack upon the English at 
Calais would be the next move of the French King, 
and that Frenchmen generally are not to be trusted ; 1 
and Mason, the Ambassador in France (November 1550) 
writes also to Cecil : " The French profess much, but 
I doubt their sincerity ; I fear they know too well our 
estate, and thereby think to ride upon our backs." 2 
But, withal, though as yet they knew it not, North- 
umberland's plans depended upon a close under- 
standing with France, and during the rest of his rule 
this was his guiding principle. Mason had to be with- 
drawn from France, and Pickering, another friend of 
Cecil's, more favourable to the French interest, was 
appointed ; whilst Wotton was sent to calm the sus- 
ceptibilities of the Emperor, who was growing fractious 
at the close alliance between Northumberland and the 
French, which was being cemented by one of the most 
splendid embassies that ever left England (March 155 1). 
Prudent Cecil through it all gives in his correspondence 
no inkling of his own feeling towards Northumberland's 
new departure in foreign policy, though the letters of 
his many friends to him are a sure indication that they 
knew he was not really in favour of it. 

In home affairs he was just as discreet. His view of 
the duty of a Secretary of State was to carry out the 

1 Hatfield Papers. 2 State Papers, Foreign. 



28 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1551 

orders of the Council without seeking to impose his own 
opinion unduly, and to the last days of his life his 
methods were conciliatory and diplomatic rather than 
forcible. He bent before insistence ; but he usually 
had his way, if indirectly, in the end, as will be seen in 
the course of his career. For instance, one of the first 
measures which he had to carry out under Northumber- 
land was the debasement of the coinage, 1 though it was 
one of his favourite maxims that "the realm cannot be 
rich whose coin is base," 2 and his persistent efforts to 
reform the coinage under Elizabeth contributed much 
to the renewed prosperity of England. It would appear 
to have been his system to make his opinion known 
frankly in the Council, but when it was overborne by 
a majority, to carry out the opposite policy loyally. As 
will be seen, this mode of proceeding probably saved his 
head on the fall of Northumberland. 

He was, indeed, not of the stuff from which martyrs 
are made, and when his first patron and friend, Somerset, 
finally fell, to the sorrow of all England, and lost his 
head on Tower Hill, Cecil's own position remained un- 
assailed. This is not the place to enter fully upon the 
vexed question of the guilt of Somerset in the alleged 
plan to murder Warwick and his friends, but a glance 
at Cecil's attitude at the time will be useful. According 
to the young King's journal, the first revelation of the 
conspiracy was made on the 7th October 155 1 by Sir 
Thomas Palmer, who on the following days amplified 
his information and implicated many of Somerset's 
friends. On the 14th, Somerset had got wind of the 
affair, and sent for his friend Secretary Cecil to tell him 
he was afraid there was some mischief brewing. Cecil 
answered coldly, "that if he were not guilty he might 
be of good courage ; if he were, he had nothing to say 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i., p. 88. 2 Desiderata Curiosa. 



155"] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 29 

but to lament him." 1 In two days Somerset and his 
friends were in the Tower, and thenceforward through 
all the shameful trial, until the sacrifice was finally 
consummated, Cecil appeared to be prudently wrapped 
up in foreign affairs ; 2 for to him had been referred the 
appeal of the Protestant princes brought by his friend 
A'Lasco, for help against their suzerain the Emperor, 
and to others fell the main task of removing the King's 
uncle from the path of Northumberland. 

Cecil's position as a Protestant Secretary of State 
was one that required all his tact and discretion. 
Somerset was his first friend and " master " ; and al- 
though it is not well established that the Duke person- 
ally was guilty of the particular crime for which he 
suffered, it is unquestionable that he had been for 
several months coquetting with the Catholic party, had 
agitated for the release of Gardiner from the Tower, 
and that his friends were busy, almost certainly with 
his own connivance, to obtain for him in the coming 
Parliament the renewal of his office of Protector. Light 
is thrown upon Cecil's share in bringing about the 
Duke's downfall, by the letters to him of his friend 
Whalley, 3 who had been officiously pushing Somerset's 
interests early in 155 1, and had been imprisoned for it. 
In June he had been released, and was apparently made 
use of by Cecil to convey letters from the latter in 

1 King Edward's Journal, printed in Burnet. 

2 There is, however, a memorandum in the Cotton MSS., Titus B II, 
(printed in Ellis's original letters) which proves that, though Cecil may not 
have been publicly prominent in the condemnation of Somerset, his acumen 
and diligence were, as usual, made use of to that end. The document is 
entirely written by Cecil, and is a list of fifteen questions to be put to 
Somerset in the Tower, all of them of a leading character and calculated to 
compromise the prisoner. In Cotton, Vesp. 171, will be found the minutes 
of the Council which discussed the execution of Somerset. Cecil has written 
thereon, as if to exonerate himself from all responsibility, that the minutes are 
in the King's hand. 3 State Papers, Dom. 



30 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1551 

London to Northumberland in the country, complain- 
ing of Somerset's efforts in favour of Gardiner, and his 
intrigues with the Catholics. That Cecil should resent, 
as Secretary of State, any movement that threatened 
Northumberland and the Protestant cause at the time 
was natural. It will be recollected that he did not 
become Northumberland's Secretary of State until the 
former had thrown over the Catholics — but it was 
perhaps an ungenerous excess of zeal to be the first 
to denounce his former patron. At all events, North- 
umberland was delighted with the Secretary's action 
in the matter, and told Whalley so — " He declared in 
the end his good opinion of you in such sort, as I may 
well say he is your very singular good lord, and resolved 
that he would write at length his opinion unto you . . . 
for he plainly said ye had shown yourself therein such 
a faithful servant, and by that, most witty councillor 
unto the King's Majesty and his proceedings, as was 
scarce the like within his realm." Whalley concludes 
his letter by urging Cecil to remonstrate with Somerset. 
Whether he did so or not is unknown ; but certainly 
for the next three months there is no hint of any serious 
renewal of the quarrel : the interminable proceedings 
against Gardiner continued, under Cecil's direction, 
without a word from Somerset, and the measures against 
the Princess Mary's mass continued unchecked. 

The French alliance was now in full flush. All through 
the autumn the stately embassy from Henry II. confirm- 
ing the treaty, and bringing the Order of St. Michael 
to Edward, was splendidly entertained at court ; the 
Emperor's troubles were closing in around him ; North- 
umberland could afford to flout his remonstrance about 
the treatment of the Princess Mary ; and by the begin- 
ning of October, Northumberland's power was at its 
height. On the 4th October he assumed his dukedom 



i55i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 31 

Dorset was made Duke of Suffolk, the Earl of Wiltshire 
was created Marquis of Winchester, and Cheke and 
Cecil were dubbed knights (although several of the 
latter's friends had insisted upon calling him Sir William 
months before). 1 Then it was that the blow fell upon 
Somerset. We have seen how Cecil bore himself to his 
former master at the first hint of danger on the 14th 
October ; and though we have no letters of his own to 
indicate his subsequent attitude, a few words in the 
confidential letters of his correspondents allow us to 
surmise what it was. 

Somerset was imprisoned on the 16th October (1551). 
On the 27th, Pickering, the Ambassador in Paris, writes 
that "he is glad Cecil is found to be undenled with 
the folly of this unfortunate Duke of Somerset." But 
Morysine, Cecil's old Lincolnshire friend, the Ambas- 
sador in Germany, reflects, evidently with exactitude, 
the tone which Cecil must have adopted. He speaks 
of Somerset as the Secretary's old friend, and congratu- 
lates Cecil that he has not been dragged down with him. 
" For it were a way to make an end of amity, if, when 
men fall, their friends should forthwith therefore be 
troubled." He plainly sees, he says, that the mark Cecil 
shoots at is their master's service; "A God's blessing ! let 
the Duke bear his own burden, or cast it where he can." 2 
Morysine might have saved his wisdom ; Cecil would 
certainly bear no other man's burden if he could help it. 

Through all this critical time Sir William was inde- 
fatigable. His wife lived usually retired from the court, 
at their home at Wimbledon ; but Cecil's town house at 
Cannon Row, Westminster, was the scene of ceaseless 
business, for Petre, the joint-Secretary, was ill disposed, 
and did little. The Duchess of Suffolk, Lord Clinton, 
and all the Lincolnshire folk used Cecil unsparingly in 

1 State Papers, Foreign. 2 Ibid. 



32 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1552 

all their suits and troubles, and they had many. Cecil's 
own properties were now very extensive, and were con- 
stantly augmented by purchases and grants. He had been 
appointed Recorder of Boston in the previous year (May 
155 1). Northumberland consulted and deferred to him 
at every point ; Cranmer sent to him the host of Protes- 
tant refugees from Germany and France : no matter what 
business was in hand, or whose it was, it inevitably 
found its way into Sir William Cecil's study, and by 
him was dealt with moderately, patiently, and wisely. 

In the war of faiths he was the universal arbitrator, 
and his task was not an easy one. The clergy had sunk to 
the lowest depth of degradation, and cures of souls had 
been given by patrons to domestic servants, and often 
to persons unable to read. The returned refugees from 
Switzerland had many of them brought back Calvinistic 
methods and beliefs, and between their rigidity and the 
English Catholicism of Henry VIII. all grades of ritual 
were practised. Cranmer was at the head of a commis- 
sion to settle a form of liturgy and the Articles for the 
Church, Cecil, of course, being a member. After immense 
labour, forty-two Articles were agreed upon — reduced to 
thirty-nine ten years afterwards — but before finally sub- 
mitting them to Parliament and Convocation for adoption, 
Cranmer referred them absolutely to Cecil and Cheke, 
" the two great patrons of the Reformation at court." 1 

In foreign affairs, also, Cecil arranged everything but 
the main line of policy which Northumberland's plans 
dictated. We have seen how the question of aid to the 
Protestant princes of Germany was referred to his con- 
sideration, and the help refused. The subject was shortly 
made a much larger one by the utter defeat of the Emperor 
by his former henchman, Maurice of Saxony, and the in- 
vasion of Luxembourg by the French (July 1552). The 

1 Strype. 



1552] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 33 

tables were now turned indeed. By the peace of Passau 
the Protestant princes extorted the religious liberty they 
had in vain prayed for, and it was seen that for a time 
Charles's power was broken. A considerable party in 
England, faithful to old traditions, were in a fever of 
alarm at the growth of the power of France, and Stukeley 
told the King that Henry II. had confided to him his 
intention to capture Calais. 1 

The Emperor, ready to snatch at any straw, sent an 
ambassador to England in September 1552 to claim the 
aid to which, under the treaty of 1542, he was entitled 
from England if France invaded his territory. The 
whole question was referred to Cecil ; and, as a speci- 
men of his patient, judicial style, his report, as given 
in the King's Journal, is reproduced here. It will be 
seen that he affects impartially to weigh both sidejs, but 
his fear of French aggression is made as clear as was 
prudent, considering Northumberland's leanings. 2 

1 King Edward's Journal (Burnet). 

2 In Sir William Cecil's handwriting. 

" Question : — 

1552 

Windsor. " i. Whether the K. Mtie shall enter into the ayd of the Emperor. 

Ed. VL "Answer. He shall. 

a facto " 1. The Kyng is bound by the treaty, and if he will be helped by 

that treaty he must do the reciproque. 

apericulo " 2. If he do not ayde, the Emperor is like to ruyne and conse- 
quently the House of Burgundy come to the French possession, 
which is perilous to England, and herein the greatness of the 
French King is dreadfull. 

Religio " 3. The F. King bringeth the Turke into Chrehdome and there- 

nsana ^^ ^^ ex pj j t b e s tayed. 

periculum " 4, jf the Emperor for extremitie should agree now with the F. 

pttcti the said perill were dooble grettur. First th' Emperor's offence 

for lacke of ayde. 2. The F. King's enterprises towards us ; and in 
this peace the bishop of Rome's devotion towards us. 

publica " 5. Merchants be so evill used that both for the losse of goods and 

etpatna nonour some remedy must be sought. 

^cons* " k ^^ e ^' Kynge's procedings be suspisiose to the realm by break - 

quentia ing and burning of our shippes, which be the old strength of this isle. 

C 



34 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1552 

Throughout the whole of his official life this was the 
way in which he dealt with all really important ques- 
tions referred to him, and his leading principle was to 



difficile 
quasi im- 
possibile 
solitudo in 
periculis 

amicoru7ii 

suspitio 

vitanda 



speran- 
dum bene 
ab amicis 



judicium 



auxilia 
communa 



sumptus 
vitandi 



atmcorum 
copia 



dignitas 
causes 

pro fide et 
religione 



inter 

mult os 

nihil 

secretum 

amicice 

irritates 



"Answer. He shall not. 

" 1. The ayde is too chargeable for the cost, and almost impossible 
to be executed. 

"2. If the Emperor should dye m this confederacy we should be 
left alone in the warr. 

"3. It may be the German Protestants might be more offended 
with this conjunction with the Emperor, doubting their owne 
cause. 

"4. The amytie with France is to be hooped will amende and 
continue and the commissioner's coming may perchance restore. 

"COROLLARIUM OF A MEANE WAY. 

" I. So to helpe the Emperor as we maye also joine with other 
Christian princes and conspyre against the F. King as a common 
enemy to chfedome. 

"Reasons for Common Conjunction. 

" 1. The cause is common and therefore there will be more parties 
to it. 

"2. It shall avoyd the chargeable entry into ayde with the 
Emperor accordyng to the treaties. 

"3. If the Emperor should dye or breake off, yet it is most likely 
some of the princes will remayne so as the K. Ma shall not be 
alone. 

"4. This friendship shall much advance the King's other causes in 
Chrendome. 

"5. It shal be more honourable to breake with the F. Kyng for 
this common quarrel of Chrendome. 

" Reasons against this Conjunction. 

" 1. The treaty must be with so many parties that it can nether be 
spedely nor secretly concluded. 

" 2. If the matter be revealed and nothing concluded then consider 
the F. Kyng's offence, and so may he at his leisure be provoked to 
practice the like conjunction agaynste England with all the papists. 



" The above is in Cecil's handwriting. To it the young King himself has 
added in his own boyish hand. 

"Conclusion. 
1. "The treaty to be made w th the Emperor and by the Emperor's meanes 
w th other princes. 



1552] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 35 

strike a middle course, which would allow England to 
remain openly friendly with the House of Burgundy 
without breaking with France, and to keep the latter 
power out of Flanders, while still defending Protes- 
tantism, which the ruler of Flanders was pledged to 
destroy. 

How his actions usually squared with his axioms is 
seen, amongst other things, from his constant efforts to 
extend the commerce and wealth of England. Amongst 
the apophthegms which he most affected are the follow- 
ing: 1 "A realm can never be rich that hath not an inter- 
course and trade of merchandise with other nations," 
and " A realm must needs be poor that carryeth not out 
more (merchandise) than it bringeth in." "; In conse- 
quence of the privileges granted to the Hanse merchants, 
nearly the whole of the export trade of England had 
been concentrated into the hands of foreigners, and in 
the year that Cecil was appointed Secretary of State, the 
Steelyard Corporation is said to have exported 44,000 
lengths of English cloth, whereas all the other London 
merchants together had not shipped more than 1100 
lengths. 2 Cecil was in favour of establishing privileged 
cloth markets at Southampton and Hull, and of plac- 
ing impediments on the exportation of cloths first-hand 
by foreigners, until the new markets had succeeded in 
attracting customers from abroad, so that the merchants' 

"2. The Emperor's acceptation to be understood before we treat anything 
against the F. King." 

After long reasoning it was determined to send to Mr. Morysine willing 
him to declare to the Emperor that "i haveing pitee as al other Christian 
princes should have on the envasion of Christendome by the Tuikes would 
willingly joine with the Emperor and other states of the Empire if the Emp. 
could bring it to passe in some league against the Turke and his confederates 
but not to be knowen by the F. King . . . Morysine to say he hath no more 
commission but if the Emperor will send a man to England he shall know 
more. This was done on intent to get some friends. The reasonings be in 
my deske." l Desiderata Curiosa. 2 Nares. 



36 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

profits would remain in England as well as the money 
spent here by the foreign buyers. Although this par- 
ticular project ultimately fell through, owing to the 
King's death and other causes, Cecil throughout his life 
laboured incessantly to increase English trade and 
navigation, by favouring the establishment of foreign 
weavers in various parts of the country, by laws for the 
protection of fisheries, by the promotion of trading cor- 
porations, like the Russian Company, of which he was 
one of the founders, by the rehabilitation of the coinage, 
and by a host of other measures, to some of which 
reference will be made in their chronological order. 

The position of affairs during the last months of 
Edward's life was broadly this : Protestant uniformity was 
being imposed upon the country with a severity unknown 
under the rule of Somerset ; Northumberland's plans for 
the elevation of Jane Grey to the throne were maturing ; 
Southampton, Paget, Arundel, Beaumont, and the Catho- 
lics were in disgrace or exile ; and De Noailles, the new 
French Ambassador, was working his hardest to help 
Northumberland, when the time should come, to exclude 
from the throne the half-Spanish Princess Mary. But 
though Sir William Cecil was the channel through which 
most of the business passed, he avoided as much as 
possible personal identification with Northumberland's 
plans. It must have needed all his tact, for Northum- 
berland consulted and deferred to him in everything, and 
as the time approached for him to act, was evidently 
apprehensive, and stayed away from the Council. This 
was resented by his colleagues, as will be seen from his 
letter to Cecil of 3rd January 1553 l from Chelsea, say- 
ing that " he has never absented himself from the King's 
service but through ill-health. The Italian proverb is 
true : a faithful servant will become a perpetual ass. He 

1 State Papers, Dom. 



r 5 53] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 37 

wishes to retire and end his days in tranquillity, as he 
fears he is going to be very ill." When it came to 
illness, diplomatic or otherwise, Cecil was a match for 
his master. He had been, according to his diary, in 
imminent danger of death in the previous year, at his 
house at Wimbledon ; and in the spring of 1553 he again 
fell seriously sick. During May, Secretary Petre con- 
stantly wrote to him hoping he would soon recover and 
be back again at court. Lord Audley comforted him 
by sending several curious remedies for his malady, 
amongst which is " a stewed sowe pygge of ix dayes 
olde " ; * and the Marquis of Winchester was equally soli- 
citous to see the Secretary back to the Council again. 
Northumberland evidently tried to keep him satisfied by 
grants and favours, for he conferred upon him a lease 
of Combe Park, Surrey, part of Somerset's lands ; the 
lands in Northampton held for life by Richard Cecil, 
his father, were regranted to Sir William on his death, 
and during the Secretary's illness and absence from 
court he received the office of Chancellor of the Order 
of the Garter, with an income of 100 marks a year and 
fees. 2 But Cecil's illness, real or feigned, 3 made him 

1 Another remedy was a hedgehog stewed in rose-water. 

2 The office at first entailed considerable expense to him. In his diary 
there is an entry on 12th April, " Paid the embroiderer for xxxvi. schutchyns 
for my servants coats at iis each . iii 1 xiis ; " and in a letter (State Papers, 
Dom.) from Petre to Cecil he tells him that the " fashion of his robes" will 
be decided when Garter comes to court. 

3 Strype regards the illness as being a diplomatic one, and I am Inclined 
to side with him ; but it is only fair to say that Cecil's old friend Dr. Wotton, 
Ambassador in France, attributed it to overwork. He writes (State Papers, 
Foreign), 21st June : " Yow perceive yow must needes moderate your labour, 
your complexion being not strong ynough to continue as yow begone ; and my 
Lords, I doubt not, will not be so unreasonable as to requyre more of yow 
than yow be able to do. A good parte of the labour which was wont to lye 
on the Clerkes of the Counsell's hands is now turned to yow, whereof I sup- 
pose yow may easily disburden yourself. It is better to do so betimes than to 
repent the not doinge of it after, when it shalle be too late." 



38 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

in no hurry to return and take a prominent part in 
Northumberland's dangerous game, which was now 
patent. During his absence his brother-in-law, Sir John 
Cheke, was appointed as an additional Secretary of State 
to help Petre (June 1553), and his fervent Protestantism 
and weakness of will made him a less wary instrument 
than Sir William in the final stages of the intrigue. 

It was during Cecil's absence from court in May that 
Lady Jane Grey was married to Northumberland's son 
Guildford Dudley ; * but by the time the plot was ready 
for consummation, Sir William could stay away no 
longer, and was at work again in his office. The letter, 
dated nth June 1553, addressed to the Lord Chief- 
Justice and other judges, summoning them to the royal 
presence, was signed by Cecil, as well as by Cheke and 
Petre. When the young King handed to the Chief- 
Justice a memorandum of his intention to set aside 
King Henry's will, and leave the crown to the de- 
scendants of Henry's youngest sister Mary, to the 
deprivation of his daughters, the Chief-Justice told 
him that such a settlement would be illegal. The 
King insisted that a new deed of settlement must be 
drawn up. The next day at Ely Place, when North- 
umberland threatened Chief-Justice Montagu as a 
traitor, Petre was present, but not Cecil ; but he must 
have been at the remarkable Council meeting on the 
14th June, when the Chief-Justice and the other judges 
with tears in their eyes were hectored into drawing up 
the fateful will disinheriting Mary and Elizabeth ; for 
upon Northumberland insisting that every one present 

1 The ceremony took place at Durham House, in the Strand, which had 
been granted by Somerset as a town residence for the Princess Elizabeth, but 
which Northumberland had, much to Elizabeth's indignation, exchanged, 
without her acquiescence, for Somerset's unfinished palace in the Strand. In 
answer to her remonstrances, Northumberland humbly protested that he had 
no desire to offend her Grace, but he made no alteration in his arrangements. 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 39 

should sign the document, he, Cecil, like the rest of them 
— with the honourable exception of Sir John Hales — 
dared not refuse, and appended his name to it. He 
was probably sorry that his illness did not delay him a 
little longer at Wimbledon, for shortly before he had, in 
a conversation with Roger Alford, one of the confidential 
members of his household, expressed an intention to be 
no party to a change in the order of the succession. 
Alford relates the story. 1 He was walking in Greenwich 
Park with Cecil, when the latter told him that he knew 
some such plan was in contemplation, "but that he 
would never be a partaker in that device." If Alford is 
to be believed, Northumberland was from the first sus- 
picious of Cecil's absence. He says that the Secretary 
feared assassination, and went armed, against his usual 
practice, visiting London secretly at night only, and con- 
cealed his valuables. His household biographer also says 
that he incurred the particular displeasure of Northum- 
berland " for mislyking or not consenting to the Duke's 
purpose touching the Lady Jane." 2 And Alford, in his 
testimony in Cecil's favour, asserted that the latter told 
him that he had refused to sign the settlement as a Coun- 
cillor, but only did so as a witness, which the paper itself 
disproves. The position of Cecil was indeed a most diffi- 
cult one. He was not a brave or heroic man, he hated 
extreme courses, and this was a juncture where his usual 
non-committal via media was of no avail. Of the two 
evils he chose the lesser, and not only signed the settle- 
ment like the rest of the Councillors, but also the instru- 

1 Strype's "Annals," vol. iv. Alford's deposition was made at Cecil's re- 
quest twenty years afterwards, and doubtless echoes what Cecil desired to be said. 

2 This statement also must be taken for what it is worth. It was written 
in Cecil's extreme old age — or soon after his death — and of course reflected 
his own version of affairs. It was natural that after the fall of Jane, and par- 
ticularly when he was Elizabeth's minister, he should be anxious to dissociate 
himself from an act which deprived the Queen of her birthright. 



40 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

ment by which certain members pledged themselves on 
oath to carry it out. But though he, like others, was 
terrorised into bending to Northumberland's will, it is 
certain that he disliked the business, made no secret of 
his unwillingness to acquiesce in it, and separated him- 
self from it at the earliest possible moment that he could 
do so with safety. There is in the Lansdowne MSS. 1 a 
paper in Cecil's hand, written after the accession of Mary, 
in which is contained his exculpation. As it throws much 
light on the matter, and upon Cecil's own character, it 
will be useful to quote it at length. It is headed " A 
briefe note of my submission and of my doings. 

" 1. My submission with all lowliness that any heart 
can conceive. 

" 2. My misliking of the matter when I heard it 
secretly ; whereupon I made conveyance away of my 
lands, part of my goods, my leases, and my raiment. 

" 3. I determined to suffer for saving my conscience ; 
whereof the witnesses, Sir Anthony Cooke, Nicholas 
Bacon, Esq., Laurence D'Eresby of Louth ; two of my 
suite, Roger Alford and William Cawood. 

"4. Of my purpose to stand against the matter, be 
also witness Mr. Petre and Mr. Cheke. 

" 5. I did refuse to subscribe the book when none of 
the Council did refuse : in what peril I refer it to be 
considered by them who know the Duke. 

" 6. I refused to make a proclamation, and turned the 
labour to Mr. Throckmorton, whose conscience, I saw, 
was troubled therewith, misliking the matter. 

" 7. I eschewed writing the Queen's highness bastard, 
and therefore the Duke wrote the letter himself, which 
was sent abroad in the realm. 2 

1 B. M. Lans. MSS., 2, 102. 

2 Notwithstanding this protest, there is in Lansdowne MSS., 1236, No. 15, 
a draft or copy, in CeciPs own handwriting, of the document referred to, 



i 5 53] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 41 

"8. I eschewed to be at the drawing of the procla- 
mation for the publishing of the usurper's title, being 
specially appointed thereto. 

"9. I avoided the answer of the Queen's highness' 
letter. 

" 10. I avoided also the writing of all the public letters 
of the realm. 

" 11. I wrote no letter to Lord La Warr as I was com- 
manded. 

"12. I dissembled the taking of my horse and the rais- 
ing of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, and avowed 
the pardonable lie where it was suspected to my danger. 

" 13. I practised with the Lord Treasurer to win the 
Lord Privy Seal, that I might by Lord Russell's means 
cause Windsor Castle to serve the Queen, and they two 
to levy the west parts for the Queen's service. I have 
the Lord Treasurer's letter to Lord St. John for to keep 
me safe if I could not prevail in the enterprise of Windsor 
Castle, and my name was feigned to be Harding. 

" 14. I did open myself to the Earl of Arundel, whom 
I found thereto disposed ; and likewise I did the like 
to Lord Darcy, who heard me with good contentation, 
whereof I did immediately tell Mr. Petre, for both our 
comfort. 

" 15. I did also determine to flee from them if the 
consultation had not taken effect, as Mr. Petre can tell, 
who meant the like. 

addressed to the Lords- Lieutenant of counties, in which they are begged "to 
disturbe, repell, and resyste the fayned and untrue clayme of the Lady Mary, 
basterd daughter of . . . Henry VIII." The date of this is the loth July ; 
but the Duke of Northumberland's draft of the same letter is endorsed by 
Cecil, 1 2th July. This would seem to suggest that at all events Cecil had 
helped the Duke in the composition of the first draft of the document. On the 
dorse of Northumberland's copy (Lansdowne MSS., 3, 34), Cecil has written : 
" First copy of a l're to be wrytte from ye Lady Jane . . . wrytte by ye Duk 
of Northubla." But, as stated above, the date of his own copy is two days 
earlier. 



42 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

" 16. I purposed to have stolen down to the Queen's 
highness, as Mr. Gosnold can tell, who offered to lead 
me thither, as I knew not the way. 

"17. I had my horses ready at Lambeth for the 
purpose. 

" 18. I procured a letter from the Lords that the 
Queen's tenants of Wimbledon should not go with Sir 
Thomas Caverden ; and yet I never gave one man warn- 
ing so much as to be in readiness, and yet they sent to 
me for the purpose, and I willed them to be quiet. I 
might as steward there make for the Queen's service a 
hundred men to serve. 

" 19. When I sent into Lincolnshire for my horses, I 
sent but for five horses and eight servants, and charged 
that none of my tenants should be stirred. 

"20. I caused my horses, being indeed but four, to 
be taken up in Northamptonshire ; and the next day 
following I countermanded them again by my letters, 
remaining in the country and notoriously there known. 

"21. When this conspiracy was first opened to me, I 
did fully set me to flee the realm, and was dissuaded by 
Mr. Cheke, who willed me for my satisfaction to read a 
dialogue of Plato where Socrates, being in prison, was 
offered to escape and flee, and yet he would not. I read 
the dialogue, whose reasons, indeed, did stay me. 

" Finally, I beseech her Highness that in her grace I 
may feel some difference from others that have more 
plainly offended and yet be partakers of her Highness' 
bountifulness and grace ; if difference may be made I 
do differ from them whom I served, and also them that 
had liberty after their enforcement to depart, by means 
whereof they did, both like noblemen and true sub- 
jects, show their duties to their sovereign lady. The like 
whereof was my devotion to have done if I might have 
had the like liberty, as knoweth God, the searcher of 



i 5 53] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 43 

all hearts, whose indignation I call upon me if it be not 
true. 

"'Justus adjutorius meus Dominus qui salvos facit 
rectos corde ' — ' God save the Queen in all felicity/ 

"W. Cecill." 1 

The document shows us the real William Cecil. It is 
probably quite true : he had taken care, whilst remaining 
a member of Northumberland's Council, and openly 
acquiescing in his acts, to make himself safe in either 
case. Throgmorton and Cheke might be made scape- 
goats — as Davison was years afterwards — but Jane or 
Mary, Protestant or Catholic, the first consideration 
for William Cecil was not unnaturally William Cecil's 
own head. He was probably not worse than the other 
members of the Council, for most of them acted in a 
similar manner, and when at length they turned against 
Northumberland, and openly declared for Mary, Sir 
William was safe to choose the winning side. 

King Edward died at Greenwich on the 6th July 1553, 
and on the 10th, Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen by 
virtue of his settlement by patent. 2 Two days afterwards 
the Council in the Tower learnt that the Lady Mary 
was rallying powerful friends about her in Kenninghall 
Castle, Norfolk, and it was agreed that Queen Jane's 
father, the Duke of Suffolk, should lead a force to cap- 
ture and bring her to London. But the girl Queen 
begged so hard that her father might remain by her side 
that her tears prevailed ; " whereupon the Councell per- 
swaded the Duke of Northumberland to take that voyage 
upon him, saying that no man was so fit therefor, because 

1 This interesting document is also printed in Tytler's "Edward VI. and 
Mary." 

2 An early copy of this document is in Harl. MSS., 35, and the original 
draft or "devise" is in Petyt Papers, Inner Temple Library. See also Strype 
and Burnet. 



44 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

he had atchieved the victorie in Norfolk once already, . . . 
besides that, he was the best man of war in the realm, 
. . . * Well/ quoth the Duke then, ' since ye think it good 
I and mine will goe, not doubting of your fidelity to 
the Quene's Majesty, which I leave in your custody ' " 1 

Northumberland hurriedly completed his prepara- 
tions at Durham Place, and urged the Council to send 
powers and directions after him to reach him at New- 
market. He insisted upon having the warrant of the 
Council for every step he took in order to pledge them 
all ; but at the farewell dinner-party with them it is 
clear that his mind was ill at ease, and his heart already 
sinking. He appealed humbly to his colleagues not to 
betray him. " If," he said, " we thought you wolde 
through malice, conspiracie, or discentyon, leave us your 
frendes in the breers (briars) and betray us, we could as 
well sondery (sundry) ways foresee and provide for our 
own safeguards as any of you by betraying us can do 
for yours." He reminds them of their oath of allegiance 
to Queen Jane, made freely to her, "who by your and 
our enticement is rather of force placed therein than by 
hir owne seking ; " again points out that they are as 
deeply pledged on each point as he himself. " But if ye 
meane deceat, though not furthwith, God will revenge 
the same. I can say no more, but in this troblesome 
tyme wishe you to use constaunte hartes, abandoning 
all malice, envy, and privat affections." Some of the 
Council protested their good faith. " I pray God yt be 
so," quod the Duke ; " let us go to dyner." 2 

Cecil must have been present at this scene, and when 
Northumberland left London on his way to Cambridge, 
" none," as he himself remarked, '* not one, saying God 
spede us," Sir h William must have known as well, or 

1 " Queen Jane and Queen Mary," Camden Society. 

2 Harl. MSS., 194. Also Hollingshead and "Queen Jane and Queen Mary." 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 45 

better, than any of them that the house of cards was 
falling, and that Northumberland was a doomed man. 
The moment he was gone, Cecil, like the rest of them, 
strove to betray him. The ships on the east coast de- 
clared for Mary, the people of London were almost in 
revolt already, the nobles in the country flocked to the 
rightful Queen. On the 19th July, Mary was proclaimed 
by the Council at Baynard's Castle, and the joy was 
general : " the Earle of Pembroke threwe awaye his cape 
full of angeletes. I saw money throwne out at windowes 
for joy, and the bonfires weare without nomber," says an 
eye-witness. 1 Sir John Cheke was present at this stirring 
scene, upon which he must have looked with a wry face ; 
but, as we have seen by his submission', Cecil had already 
been busy trimming and facing both ways. He first 
sent his wife's sister, Lady Bacon, to meet the new 
Queen, whom she knew, and as soon as might be him- 
self started for the eastern counties, to greet the rising 
sun. 2 Lady Bacon had paved the way, and, to make quite 
sure, Cecil sent his henchman Alford ahead to see her at 
Ipswich, and learn what sort of reception her brother- 
in-law might expect. Her message was " that the Queen 
thought well of her brother Cecil, and said he was a very 

1 Harl. MSS., 353. 

2 It is not quite clear whether Cecil preceded or followed Arundel and 
Paget in their journey to meet the Queen. It is nearly certain that Cecil 
started after them. They were certainly present at the proclamation at 
Baynard's Castle on the 19th July, whereas Cecil does not appear to have 
been there. The letter, moreover, written the same morning from the Tower 
by the Council to Lord Rich, exhorting him to stand firm for Jane (Lans- 
downe MSS., 3) which Cecil said was written by Cheke, is signed by all the 
Councillors in London, including Arundel, Paget, Petre, and Cheke, but not 
by Cecil. The letter to Mary from the Council, carried by Arundel and Paget, 
appears to have borne no signatures (Strype's " Cranmer ") ; but the letter to 
Northumberland shortly afterwards ordering him to obey the Queen bears 
Cecil's signature. Probably, therefore, Cecil found some excuse for absenting 
himself on the critical 19th July, and when Mary's triumph was assured, signed 
the denunciation of Northumberland, and at once started to greet the Queen. 



46 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 1553 

honest man." Then Sir William went on, and met Mary 
at Newhall, Essex, where he explained matters as best he 
could. When he was reproached with arming his four 
horsemen to oppose Queen Mary, he explained, as we 
have seen, that he himself had secretly caused them to 
be detained. No doubt the sardonic disillusioned Queen 
must have smiled grimly as she read the shifty, ungene- 
rous " submission," already quoted in full ; and however 
u honest " she may have considered Lady Bacon's brother- 
in-law, she knew he was not a bold man or a thorough 
partisan of hers, and when her ministry was formed, 
Cecil was no longer Secretary — but he did not, like poor 
Sir John Cheke, find himself a prisoner in the Tower. 

Sir William's entry in his journal on the occasion of 
the King's death is a curious one, 1 and seems to indicate 
his general dislike of his position under Northumber- 
land, whose home and foreign policy, as we have seen, 
were both diametrically opposite to those dictated by the 
training and character of Cecil. 2 The only point upon 
which there could have been a real community of aims 
between them was that of religion, and on that point 
Northumberland, who subsequently avowed himself a 
Catholic, 3 was false to his own convictions. 

1 7 Julii Libertatem adeptus su morte regis et ex misere aulico factus liber- 
tas mei juris. 

2 An interesting letter from Northumberland to the Council and Secretaries 
of State, written during his illness (27th November 1552, State Papers, Foreign) 
shows how much Cecil and his colleagues distrusted Northumberland's new 
departure in foreign policy. The French Ambassador's secretary had desired 
audience of the Duke alone, to convey a private message from Henry II. to 
him. Northumberland knew that this would be resented by the Council, and 
wrote : " I have availed myself of my sickness to direct the Secretary, who 
was very importunate, to communicate what he had to say, to one of the Secre- 
taries of State or to the Council. And thus I trust within a while, although I 
may be thought affectionate to the French, as some have reported me, yet I 
doubt not this way which I intend to use with them to continue but a little 
while in their graces, which I never desired in all my life but for the service of 
my master, as knoweth the Lord." 

3 Dalby's letter in Harl. MSS., 353. 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 47 

During the whole of the reign of Edward, Cecil had 
continued to enrich himself by grants, stewardships, re- 
versions, and offices ; not of course to the same extent 
as Somerset, Northumberland, Clinton, or Winchester, 
for he was a moderate man and loved safety, but on the 
accession of Mary he must have been very rich. ^ During 
his mother's life, which was a long one, he always looked 
upon Burghley House as hers, although he spent large 
sums of his own money upon buildings and improve- 
ments ; but he inherited from his father large estates in 
Northamptonshire, Rutland, Lincolnshire, and elsewhere. 
We have already noticed that he obtained the Crown 
manor of Wimbledon and other grants ; but, in addition 
to those already noted, he obtained, in October 1551, the 
period of Somerset's sacrifice, grants of the manor of 
Berchamstow and Deping, in Lincolnshire ; the manor 
and hall of Thetford, in the same county ; the reversion of 
the manor of Wrangdike, Rutland ; the manor of Lidding- 
ton, Rutland, and a moiety of the rectory of Godstow. 
He was a large purchaser of land also in the county of 
Lincoln ^so that although his household historian asserts 
that his lands never brought him in more than ^4000 a 
year, his expenses were on a very lavish scale, and he 
had, as his friend the Duchess of Suffolk says in one of 
her letters to him, brought his wares to a good market. 
By his embroiderer's account, already quoted, we see 
that at this period of his life he maintained thirty-six 
servitors wearing his badge and livery ; but in the time 
of Elizabeth his establishments were on a truly princely 
footing. He had eighty servants wearing his livery, and 
we are told that the best gentlemen in England com- 
peted to enter his service ; " I have nombered in his 
howse attending at table twenty gentlemen of his re- 
tayners of ^1000 per annum a peece, in possession or 
reversion, and of his ordinarie men, as many more, some 



48 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

worth ;£iooo, some worth 3, 5, 10, yea, .£20,000, daily 
attending his service." 

But though acquisitive and fond of surrounding him- 
self with the accessories of wealth and great standing, he 
had few of the tastes of the territorial aristocracy, whom 
he imitated. Arms, sport, athletic exercises, did not 
appeal to him. From his youth he dressed gravely and 
soberly ; and at a time, subsequently, when splendour 
and extravagance in attire were the rule, he still kept to 
his fur-trimmed gown and staid raiment. He was an 
insatiable book buyer and collector of heraldic and 
genealogical manuscripts. Sir William Pickering in 
Paris, and Sir John Mason, had orders to buy for him 
all the attractive new books published in France ; and 
Chamberlain in Brussels had a similar commission. The 
former mentions in one letter (15th Dec. 1551, State 
Papers, Foreign) having purchased Euclid with the 
figures, Machiavelli, Le Long, the New Testament in 
Greek, LHorloge des Princes , Discours de la Guerre , Notes 
on Aristotle in Italian, and others ; and the Hatfield 
Papers contain very numerous memoranda of books 
and genealogies bought by Cecil, or sent to him as 
presents from his friends and suitors. Wotton, for 
instance, when he was abroad and wished to oblige his 
friend, says : "If I knew anye kind of bookes heere 
(Poissy) which yow like, I wold bye them for yow, and 
bring them home with some of myne owne. Here is 
Clemens Alexandrinus and Theodoretus in Epis tolas Pauli y 
turned into Latin. But because I heere that yow have 
Clemens Alexandrinus in Greek already, I suppose yow 
care not for him in Latin." 1 * 

His love of study, too, extended to interest in others. 
He was a constant benefactor to Cambridge University, 
and St. John's particularly, and influenced the King 2 to 

1 Hatfield Papers. 2 Strype. 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 49 

bequeath £100 per annum to the foundation in his will. 
Shortly before the young King's death, also, he appears to 
have granted to Cecil's own town of Stamford — almost 
certainly at his instance — funds for the foundation of a 
grammar school there, of which Sir William was to be 
the life governor, and there is ample evidence that the 
establishment of the large number of educational bene- 
factions with which the young King signalised his reign 
— primarily at the instance of Bishop Hooper — was 
powerfully promoted by Cecil ; who seems also, on his 
own account, to have always maintained a certain number 
of scholars, 1 and to have been the universal resource 
of students, teachers, and colleges, in their troubles and 
difficulties. The accession of Mary, which threw Cecil 
out of office, or, as he puts it, gave him his liberty, did 
not deprive him of his large means, or limit his en- 
lightened activity in other directions. But for a time 
after the death of Edward, he remained, so far as so 
prominent and able a man could do so, simply a private 
citizen. His household biographer asserts "that Mary 
had a good liking for him as a Councillor, and would 
have appointed him if he had changed his religion." 
Although he puts a grandiloquent speech in Cecil's 
mouth, refusing office, saying much about preferring 
God's service before that of the Queen, it is extremely 
doubtful whether Mary ever offered to call him to her 
Council. Towards the end of her reign, when Eliza- 
beth's early accession was inevitable, however, the 
Council itself was desirous of conciliating him. Lloyd 
(" State Worthies ") says of him : " When he was out of 
place he was not out of service in Queen Mary's days, 
his abilities being as necessary in those times as his 
inclinations, and that Queen's Council being as ready to 
advance him at last as they were to use him all her reign." 

1 In Lansdowne MSS., 2, will be found many letters on these subjects to 
and from Cecil, showing the deep interest he took in educational matters. 

D 



CHAPTER III 

I553-I558 

During the trial and execution of Northumberland and 
his accomplices, Cecil remained prudently in the back- 
ground. Gardiner, Norfolk, Courtney, Bonner, and the 
other prisoners in the Tower were released. Home and 
foreign policy changed, the Catholics were buoyed with 
hope, and the Emperor's Ambassador was in full favour, 
whilst the Protestants were timorous and apprehensive, 
and the French Ambassador ill at ease, for his King was 
at war with the Emperor, and had from the first endea- 
voured to minimise the claims of Mary. 1 

On the 3rd August the new Queen entered London 
with her sister near her, and preparations were at once 
set afoot for her coronation (1st October). Cecil was no 
longer in office, and was commanded by the Queen to 
send her the seals and register of the Garter on the 21st 
September ; 2 but he appears to have gone to the expense 
of new liveries for his servants in honour of the occasion. 
Twelve of his servants were given garments of the best 
cloth with badges, eleven received one and a quarter yards 
of the best cloth each, with second-class cognisances, and 
nine more had cloth of second quality, one coat being 
left with Lady Cecil to bestow as she pleased. 8 On the 
same document Sir William himself has made numerous 
notes as to the price of these materials, which, if we did 
not already know it by many other testimonies, would 

1 Ambassades de Noailles, vol. ii., and Hatfield Papers, part i. 25. 

2 Hatfield Papers, part i., and Haynes. 3 Hatfield Papers. 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 51 

prove that, though his expenditure was great, he was 
careful of the items of it. His father, the Yeoman of the 
Robes, had died in the previous year (1552), and apparently 
the office had remained in abeyance, being temporarily 
administered by Sir William. His neighbour Sir Edward 
Dymoke, of Scrivelsby, Lincolnshire, had, in accordance 
with his tenure, to act as champion at the Queen's corona- 
tion, and was entitled to his equipment out of the office 
of robes. A few days before the coronation ceremony 
Dymoke applied for his outfit. Some of the articles were 
not on hand and had to be bought of one Lenthal ; and 
the champion begged Cecil to vouch for the purchase, 
consisting of " a shrowd, a girdle, a scabbard of velvett, 
two gilt partizans, a pole axe, a chasing staff and a pair 
of gilt spurs, the value in all being £6, 2s. 8d." Ap- 
parently Cecil took no notice of the application, and in 
an amusing letter at Hatfield, the champion complains 
bitterly, nearly two months after the coronation, that he 
could never get his outfit. Cecil insisted upon a warrant 
from the Queen ; but, said Dymoke, he had received all 
his equipment without warrant at the previous corona- 
tion, and he prays Cecil not to be " more straytor " than 
his father was. He had his cup of gold, his horse, and 
trappings, and crimson satin, without warrant then, and 
why, he asks, should one be required now. " I do not 
pass so much of the value of the allowance as I do for 
the precedent to hinder those who do come after me, if I 
do lose it this time." 

Cecil does not seem to have absented himself from 
court, though he passed more of his time than hitherto at 
Wimbledon. Wyatt rose and fell ; Elizabeth and Courtney 
suffered under the Queen's displeasure ; Cheke and Cooke 
went to exile ; Cecil's old friend the Duchess of Suffolk 
and her husband Mr. Bertie fled to Germany ; Carews, 
Staffords, Tremaynes, Killigrews, Fitzwilliams, the ex- 



52 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1553 

Ambassador Pickering, and hundreds like them, took re- 
fuge abroad from the country over which a Spanish King, 
with his half-Spanish Queen, were soon to be supreme. 
Cranmer, Cecil's friend from boyhood, and other Pro- 
testant Churchmen, filled the rooms in the Tower vacated 
by those whom Cecil had been active in prosecuting, 
but Cecil himself lived rich and influential, if no longer 
politically powerful, and no hand was raised against him. 
That he was a conforming Catholic is certain, quite apart 

I from Father Persons' spiteful description of his exag- 
gerated devotion ; " frequenting masses, said litanies with 
the priest, laboured a pair of great beads which he con- 
tinually carried, preached to his parishioners in Stamford, 
and asked pardon for his errors in King Edward's time." 
This statement of itself would not suffice were it not 
supported by better evidence ; but although there is a 
dearth of such evidence at the beginning of Mary's reign, 
there is abundance of it later. At the Record Office, 
among other papers of the same sort, there exists the 
Easter book for 1556, headed, " The names of them that 
dwelleth in the pariche of Vembletoun that was confessed 
and received the Sacrament of the altar ; " the first entry 
being, u My master Sir Wilyem Cecell, and my lady 
Myldread his wyff;" 1 and Cecil's accounts for this period 
contain many entries of the cost of his oblations and 
gifts to the altar. He retained, moreover, the benefices 
of Putney and Mortlake, of which he kept strict account ; 
and in August 1557 the Dean and Chapter of Worcester 
addressed a letter of thanks to him for his annual con- 
tribution to his two churches, and assured him of their 
willingness to accede to his wishes and increase the 
stipends of the curates there. 2 There is therefore no 
doubt that, like Princess Elizabeth and most of those 
who afterwards became her ministers, Cecil was quite 

1 Reproduced by Tytler. 2 Lansdowne MSS., 3. 



1553] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 53 

ready, in outward seeming at least, to adopt the ritual 
decreed by the Court and Parliament. 

Renard, the Emperor's Ambassador, had broached the 
idea of a marriage between Mary and Philip, the Prince 
of Spain, less than a week after the Queen's entry into 
London ; and thenceforward the arrangements for the 
match went forward apace. The people generally were 
in an agony of fear ; Gardiner himself, the Queen's Chan- 
cellor, and most of her wisest Councillors, looked coldly 
upon the idea ; they would rather she had married 
Courtney, and formed a close political alliance with the 
House of Spain. But the Queen was a daughter of 
Catharine of Aragon, and the exalted religious ideas of 
her race had caused her to look upon herself as the 
divinely-appointed being who was to bring to pass the 
salvation of her people, and this she knew could only be 
done by the power and money that Spain could bring to 
her. The connection would enable her, too, to be re- 
venged upon France, which had befriended her mother's 
supplanter, and was still subsidising revolution against 
her. Those who were Catholics first and Englishmen 
afterwards, applauded her determination to wed her 
Spanish cousin ; and the priests in Rome watched, from 
the moment of her advent, for the possibility of the 
restoration of England to the faith, and the disgorging 
of the plunder of the Church by those who had swallowed 
it. Most of these saw in the Spanish match the probable 
realisation of their hopes. 

Immediately after Mary's accession the Pope had 
appointed Cardinal Pole to negotiate with these ends. 
He was an Englishman of the blood royal, who had no 
special Spanish ends to serve : his one wish was to bring 
back England into the fold of the Church. But before 
he started on his journey to England, Charles V. took 
fright. His views were quite different. He and his son 



54 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1554 

wanted to get political control over England for their 
own dynastic interests. So long as the religious element 
helped them in this, they were glad to use it ; but if the 
priests went too fast and too far, and caused disgust and 
reaction in England, their plans would fail. So, as usual 
when it was a choice between religion and politics by 
statesmen of that age, they chose politics. The difficulty 
was that the Churchmen had expected that the return of 
England to the fold would necessarily mean the restitu- 
tion of all ecclesiastical property. Pole himself was full 
of this idea, and his first powers from the Pope gave him 
little or no discretion to abate the claim for entire and 
unconditional surrender of the Church plunder. But 
at the instance of the Emperor, the Pope was induced 
to grant to Pole full discretionary powers. Then he was 
persuaded to send the Legate to France and Brussels 
on his way to England, with the ostensible purpose of 
mediating a peace between France and the Emperor, 
but really in order that he might be influenced in the 
Spanish interest, and his departure for England was thus 
delayed until it was considered prudent to let him go. 
It was not until he had promised that he would only act 
in accordance with the advice of the new King-consort, 
Philip, that he was permitted to proceed on his mission, 
with the certainty now, that the restitution of the Church 
property would go no further than was dictated by the 
political interests which the Emperor had nearest his 
heart. This happened in November 1554, four months 
after the Queen's marriage, and the somewhat curious 
choice of Paget (Lord Privy Seal), Sir Edward Hastings, 
and Sir William Cecil, was made to go and meet the 
Legate at Brussels, and bring him to England. Their 
instructions, 1 evidently inspired by Philip, who was still 
in England, entirely confirm the above view of the sub- 

1 State Papers, Foreign. 



1554] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY $$ 

ject. The envoys are to seek the Cardinal, and " to 
declare that the greatest, and almost the only, means to 
procure the agreement of the noblemen and others of 
our Council (to the re-entry of England into the Church) 
was our promise that the Pope would, at our suit, dis- 
pense with all possessors of any lands or goods of 
monasteries, colleges, or other ecclesiastical houses, to 
hold and enjoy quietly the same, without trouble or 
scruple." Herein the influence of the politicians is clearly 
visible ; and the Churchmen for fifty years afterwards 
attributed the failure of Catholic attempts in England to 
God's anger at this paltering with the plunder of His 
property. 1 Cecil's voyage was a short one. The entry in 
his journal runs thus : " 1554. vi° Novembris (ii. Maries) 
capi iter cum Domino Paget et Magistro Hastings versus 
Casarem pro reducendo Cardinale; " but in the little Perpe- 
tual Calendar at Hatfield the voyage is noted in English. 
The journal continues : " Venimus Bruxelles n Novebris ; " 
and then, " Redivimus 24 Westmonsterij cu Card. Po/o." 

No more is said of the events of the journey, or of 
Cecil's negotiations with the Cardinal ; but it may be 
surmised that Pole at first would not look very favour- 
ably upon Sir William, as during the correspondence 
with Somerset, in which Pole exhorted the Protector to 
desist from troubling Catholics, a somewhat rude com- 
munication was sent to him, which in his reply he attri- 
buted, not to the Protector himself, but to Cecil. It is 
probable that Cecil was chosen, because, though out- 
wardly a Catholic, his views were known to be extremely 
moderate, and at the moment it was these views which 
were most in accordance with the interests of England 
and Spain from the point of view of the Emperor and 
his son. It may be assumed that a similar reason 
accounts for Cecil's appointment in the following May, 

1 " Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth," vol. iv. 629. 



$6 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1555 

1555, to accompany the Cardinal to Calais, for the pur- 
pose of negotiating for a peace between France and the 
Emperor. Pole had offered the mediation of England 
to Noailles some months before, but the lukewarmness 
of the Emperor, the delay in the appointment of his 
envoys, and the French military successes in Piedmont, 
had dragged the matter out whilst an infinity of ques- 
tions of procedure and personality were being slowly 
settled. The French Ambassador protested against the 
appointment of the -Earl of Pembroke or the Earl of 
Arundel, especially the latter, a vain, giddy man, and a 
friend of Spain, to accompany the embassy. Gardiner, 
he said, would be sufficient to represent English inter- 
ests, with Pole as Papal Legate ; and the addition of 
either of the Earls or of Paget was looked upon as an 
indication of a desire rather to pick a fresh quarrel with 
France than to negotiate a peace. 

Cecil would appear to have occupied quite a second- 
ary position in the embassy, as he is never mentioned in 
the correspondence between the French envoys Con- 
stable Montmorenci and Cardinal Lorraine and Noailles 
describing the meetings. In any case, the negotiations, 
which took place at Marcq, equidistant from Calais, 
Ardres, and Gravelines, speedily fell through, and by 
the 26th June the attempt was abandoned ; in conse- 
quence mainly of the insistence of the Emperor in the 
restoration of the Duke of Savoy to his dominions then 
occupied by the French. The apprehensions of the 
French Ambassador had not been entirely unfounded. 
It had been -Philip's intention to ask the Parliament of 
1554 for England's armed aid in favour of the Emperor, 
but the indiscreet zeal of the Churchmen had already 
brought about reaction, and the Parliament was hastily 
dissolved. In the new Parliament of 1555, Cecil was 
elected, as he insinuates not by his own desire, Knight 



1555] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 57 

of the Shire for Lincoln. In the previous year (February 
1554) he had requested the aldermen of the borough of 
Grantham to elect a nominee of his their member. 
What would, no doubt, have been a command when 
he was Secretary of State in the previous reign, could 
be disregarded under Mary, and the aldermen politely 
informed him that they had already made other arrange- 
ments. 1 It is quite understandable that to so prudent 
a man as Cecil it would have been much more agreeable 
to have been represented by a nominee than to have 
sat personally in the Parliament of 1555. 

The Queen's pregnancy had turned out a delusion. 
It was seen by the Spaniards now that the Queen herself 
was but a puppet in the hands of the Council, and that 
Philip would never be allowed to rule England, as 
had been intended, solely for the benefit of Spanish 
interests. The imperial plot had failed ; and on the 26th 
August 1555, the King-consort took leave of his heart- 
broken wife, and went to his duties elsewhere. As 
soon as he had gone, as Renard had wisely foretold, 
all barriers of prudence which had hitherto, to some 
extent, restrained the persecution of Protestants, were 
broken down. Philip left with the Queen strict instruc- 
tions for the administration of affairs, and notes of 
all Council meetings were sent to him, in order that 
he might still keep some control. But Cranmer was 
arraigned, Ridley and Latimer were martyred, the resti- 
tution of alienated tithes, first-fruits, and tenths was 
proposed, the Protestant exiles abroad were recalled, 
under pain of confiscation of their property, the bishops 
were deprived, and throughout England the flames of 
persecution soon spread unchecked. 

What King Philip wanted were English arms and 
money, to aid his father in the war, not the fires of 

1 Lansdowne MSS., 3. 



58 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1555 

Smithfield, or the blind zeal of the priests to set men's 
hearts against the cause of Rome, which was his main 
instrument. But the Parliament of 1555 and the 
Queen's Council were determined to withhold aid to 
the Emperor's war as long as they could. Money there 
was none, the English ships were rotting and unmanned 
in port, men-at-arms were sulky at the idea of righting 
for the Spaniard ; but burning Protestants and confis- 
cating recusants' property cost nothing, and so the 
game went on in despite of absent Philip. Amongst 
the threatened exiles in Germany were many of Cecil's 
friends, especially the Duchess of Suffolk and Sir Anthony 
Cooke, who kept up a close correspondence with his 
son-in-law, but refused to conform and return to 
England. Whether it was the enactment against these 
friends, 1 or some other of the confiscatory or extreme 
measures of the Government, that Cecil opposed in the 
Parliament of 1555, is not quite certain ; but an entry 
in his diary shows that he was in extreme peril as a 
result of his action. 2 The entry is, as usual, in Latin. 

1 See an account of the pursuit of these exiles in the narrative of John 
Brett ("Transactions Royal Hist. Soc," vol. xi.), and also Foxe's "Acts and 
Monuments." 

2 A few months afterwards his brother-in-law, Sir John Cheke, wrote 
from abroad (February 1556), evidently in fear that Cecil was going too far 
in his conformity. " He hoped," he said, " that he would not suffer his 
judgment to be corrupted in these evil times by what a multitude of ignorance 
might approve" (Lansdowne MSS., 3). Cheke's evil fate fell upon him very 
shortly, as if in judgment for his own pharisaism. In the same spring he was 
lured by promise of pardon into Philip's Flemish dominions with Sir Peter 
Carew. He was treacherously seized, bound, and kidnapped on board a 
vessel at Antwerp (much as Dr. Story was in the reign of Elizabeth), brought 
to England, and lodged in the Tower. Threatened with the stake, he 
allowed Dr. Feckenham to persuade him to recant. Mary's Government 
made him publicly drink the cup of degradation to the dregs, and the un- 
happy man — pitied by his friends, and betrayed and scoffed at by his enemies — 
died of a broken heart the following year (September 1557). See Strype's 
" Memorials." Archbishop Parker's remark, written on the margin of one of 
Cheke's recantations, is the most merciful and appropriate to the case, 
" Homines Sumus." 



1555] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 59 

"On the 21st October, Parliament was celebrated at 
Westminster, in which, although with danger to myself, 
I performed my duty ; for although I did not wish it, 
yet being elected a Knight of the Shire for Lincoln, I 
spoke my opinion freely, and brought upon me some 
odium thereby ; but it is better to obey God than 
man." The household biographer gives a fuller account 
of what probably is the same matter: " In this Parlia- 
ment (1555) Sir William Cecil was Knight for the County 
of Lincoln. In the House of Commons little was done 
to the liking of the court. The Lords passed a bill for 
confiscating the estates of such as had fled for religion. 
In the Lower House it was rejected with great indigna- 
tion. Warm speeches were made on this, and other 
occasions, particularly in relation to a money bill, in all 
of which Sir William Cecil delivered himself frankly." * 
One day, especially, a measure was before the House 
which the Queen wished to pass, and Sir William 
Courtney, Sir John Pollard, Sir Anthony Kingston, with 
other men from the west, opposed. Sir William Cecil 
sided with them and spoke effectively, and after the 
House rose they came to him and invited themselves to 
dine with them. He told them they would be welcome 
" so long as they did not speak of any matter of Parlia- 
ment." Some, however, did so, and their host reminded 
them of the condition. The matter was conveyed to the 
Council, and the whole of the company was sent for and 
committed to custody. Sir William himself was brought 
before his late colleagues and friends, Lord Paget and 
Sir William Petre. He said he desired they would not 
do with him as with the rest, which was somewhat hard, 
namely, to commit him first, and then hear him after- 
wards, but prayed them first to hear him, and then 
commit him if he were guilty ; whereupon Paget replied, 

1 Desiderata Curiosa, 



60 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1555 

" You spake like a man of experience ; " and Cecil, as 
usual, cleared himself from blame. 1 

During this period Cecil divided his time between 
Cannon Row, Wimbledon, and Burghley, occupying 
himself much whilst in the country with farming and 
horticulture. His accounts are very voluminous, and 
are frequently annotated in his own hand. Every pay- 
ment is stated under its proper head — kitchen, cellar, 
buttery, garden, and so forth ; and the whole of the 
household supplies, whether, as was usual, taken from 
his own farm, or purchased, are duly accounted for at 
current prices. The dinner -hour of the family was 
11 a.m., before which prayer was read in the chapel, 
and the supper was served at 6 p.m. ; these rules being 
observed at all his houses, whether he was in residence 
or not. His charities were always large, and in his later 
years reached an average of ^500 a year ; and wherever 
he had property there was a regular system of distribu- 
tion of relief to the needy in the neighbourhood. His 
most intimate friends were still some of the first people 
in England. As a moderate man he had now com- 
mended himself to Pole ; Lord Admiral Clinton, a 
great Lincolnshire magnate, was evidently by his letters 
on terms of familiarity with him ; the Earl of Sussex, 
the Viceroy of Ireland, expressed himself anxious to do 
him service ; 2 Sir Philip Hoby and Lord Cobham vied 
with each other in inducing him and Lady Cecil to 
visit them at their respective Kentish seats ; and Lord 
John Grey, on the occasion of his wife being delivered 
of a "gholly boye," begs Cecil to stand godfather to 
the infant. 3 Cecil's wife had already given birth to a 
daughter, and in the Calendar Diary at Hatfield an entry 

1 Desiderata Curios a. 

2 Sir Thomas Cornwallis to Cecil : Hatfield Papers, part i. 

3 Hatfield Papers, part i. 



T556] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 61 

against 5th December 1556 records, "Natus est Anna 
Cecil," which event somewhat disappointed both Cecil and 
his father-in-law, Cooke, in his exile, as they had earnestly 
looked for a son. Cecil must have been a devoted 
husband, though probably an undemonstrative one, as 
the letters of Sir Anthony Cooke always praise him for 
his goodness, both to his daughter and to himself in 
his poverty and banishment. Sir Philip Hoby, in one 
of his hearty letters during Lady Cecil's confinement, 
expresses sorrow that Sir William cannot visit him. 
" You should have been welcome if my Lady might 
have spared you, to whom you have been as good a 
nurse as you would have her be to you ; " * and seven 
weeks later he writes again (21st February), advising 
Cecil " to come abroad, and not tarry so long with my 
Lady, and in such a stinking city, the filthiest of the 
world." Sir Nicholas Bacon and his wife, Lady Cecil's 
sister, were also frequent and kindly correspondents ; 
and the Countess of Bedford, who with her children 
were left by her husband to Cecil's care on the Earl's 
departure in command of the English contingent to 
aid the Emperor, referred all her business to him. 2 
Cecil's life, indeed, at this period was that of a noble 
of great wealth and influence, surrounded by friends, 
occupied with the details of large estates and with 
studious pursuits, in great request as trustee and inter- 
mediary for other people's affairs, openly conforming 
in religion, but of acknowledged moderate views, and 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. 

2 The powerful Earl of Bedford was a prime favourite of Philip — though 
afterwards so strong a Protestant — and had been sent to Spain to accompany 
the Queen's consort to England. He appears to have been on close terms of 
friendship with Cecil, who managed his affairs in his absence, and to whom 
he wrote an interesting account of the great victory of St. Quentin (Hatfield 
Papers). The friendship of such men as Bedford, Clinton, and Paget would of 
itself almost account for Cecil's immunity and favour under Philip and Mary. 



62 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1556 

keeping on fairly good terms with the party in power, 
as did Sir Nicholas Bacon, Sir Thomas Smith, Roger 
Ascham, and others in similar case. 

But there was one element of Cecil's activity to which 
no undue prominence was given, although it was great 
and continuous — namely, his communications with the 
Princess Elizabeth and his prudent efforts in her favour. 
From his first official employment at court, he had been 
appealed to by the Princess in questions requiring dis- 
cretion. When he was Secretary to the Protector (25th 
. September 1549), Parry, the cofferer and factotum of 
I Elizabeth, wrote to him the letter which has often been 
quoted, 1 in which he gives an account of the visit of the 
Venetian Ambassador to Ashridge : " Hereof her Grace 
hath, with all haste, commanded me to send unto you, 
and to advertise you, to the intent forthwith it may please 
you, at her earnest request, either to move my Lord's 
Grace, and to declare unto him yourself, or else forth- 
with to send word in writing, that her Grace may know 
thereby, whether she shall herself write thereof . . . and 
in case ye shall advise her Grace to write, then so forth- 
with to advertise her Grace. . . . Herein she desires you 
to use her trust as in the rest." It will be seen by this 
that Cecil was then considered by Elizabeth as her 
friend. Another letter from Parry (September 155 1) 2 is 
still more cordial : " I have enclosed herein her Grace's 
letters, for so is her Grace's commandment, which she 
desires you, according to her trust, to deliver from her 
unto my Lord's Grace, taking such opportunity therein 
by your wisdom as thereby she may . . . hear from his 
Grace. . . . Her Grace commanded me to write this. 
' Write my commendations in your letters to Mr. Cecil 
that I am well assured, though I send not daily to him, 
that he doth not, for all that, daily forget me ; say, 

1 State Papers, Dom. 2 Ibid. 



i 5 57] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 63 

indeed, I assure myself thereof.' ... I had forgotten to 
say to you that her Grace commanded me to say to you 
for the excuse of her hand, that it is not now as good as 
she trusts it shall be ; her Grace's unhealth hath made it 
weaker and so unsteady, and that this is the cause." 

Elizabeth, in common with most other people, was 
also very anxious to put her business affairs into Cecil's 
hands, and in such matters as leases, sales of timber of 
her manors, and the like, Sir William's services and 
advice were often requisitioned by her. In April 1553 
she had serious complaints to make of extortion and 
malversation on the part of the steward (Keys) of certain 
of her manors which had been dedicated to the support 
of the hospital of Ewelme ; and she appointed Cecil as 
the principal member of a committee to examine closely 
into the whole matter, " as her Grace is determined to 
remove the violence and oppression, and to have the 
poor thoroughly considered." * At the time that North- 
umberland was casting about for a foreign husband 
for Elizabeth, some prince who, though of Protestant 
leanings, should not be powerful enough to force her 
claims to the crown, Cecil seems to have suggested 
the Duke of Ferrara's son Francesco, but the proposal 
came to nothing. It may, however, be accepted as 
certain that the intrigues of Noailles on the one hand 
to pledge Elizabeth to marry Courtney, as proposed by 
Paget, and the persistent attempts of the Spanish party 
to pledge her to Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy, 
found no support from Cecil, since one marriage would 
have played into the hands of France, and the other 

1 Cecil seems to have been greatly in request for commissions involving a 
knowledge of rural dilapidations and the management of landed estates. In 
March 1557 the Lords of Queen Mary's Council commissioned him to exa- 
mine the damage done to Brigstock Park, Northampstonshire, and to place Sir 
Nicholas Throgmorton there as keeper (Lansdowne MSS., 3). He was also 
steward of Colly Weston and other manors belonging to Princess Elizabeth, 



64 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1557 

would have rendered the Catholics permanently supreme 
in England ; and, as has already been seen, Cecil's great 
principle was to keep his country as far as possible free, 
both from Rome and from France. The consummate 
dexterity exhibited by Elizabeth during the troubled 
reign of Mary was exactly of a piece with Cecil's own 
management of his affairs at the same period; and 
although there is no proof that he in any way guided 
her action, it is in evidence that she kept up communica- 
tion with him on many subjects, and it is in the highest 
degree probable that she asked his advice on the vital 
points, upon which on several occasions her very life 
depended. Camden expressly says that she did so, and 
he is confirmed by Cecil's household biographer ; but 
if it be true, it must have been done with great caution 
and care, for Cecil to have escaped, as he did, all sus- 
picion when Elizabeth herself was deeply suspected 
after Wyatt's rising. Cecil's advice to the Princess, if 
given at all, was probably to do as he himself endea- 
voured to do ; namely, to conform as much as might 
be necessary for her safety, and to avoid entanglements 
or engagements of every description. This at all events 
was the course they both successfully followed. 

Philip had at last dragged England into war against 
the wish of the whole of the Council except Paget, 
though the King had reluctantly to come and exert his 
personal influence on his wife before it could be done. 
At the beginning of July 1557 he left her for the last 
time, and in a month the victory of St. Quentin gave 
him the great chance of his life. He hesitated, dallied, 
and missed it; the English contingent sulky, unpaid, and 
discontented— the Spaniards said cowardly — clamoured 
to go home, and Philip, not daring to add to his unpopu- 
larity in England, let them go. Calais and Guines fell 
before the vigour of Francis of Guise (January 1558), 



1558] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 65 

for the fortresses had been neglected both by Northum- 
berland and Mary. When it was already too late, the 
King had urged the English Council to send reinforce- 
ments ; but his envoy, Feria, crossed the Channel at the 
same time as the news that the last foothold of England 
on the Continent had gone. 

Thenceforward it was evident that Mary's days were 
numbered, and eyes were already looking towards her 
successor. The war, never popular in England, became 
perfectly hateful. The people growled that waggon-loads 
of English money were being sent to Philip, and the 
Council, almost to a man, resisted as much and as long 
as they dared, Philip's constant requests for English aid. 
When Parliament and the Council had been cajoled and 
squeezed to the utmost, Feria left in July 1558 to join his 
master ; but before doing so, he thought it prudent to 
pay a visit to Madame Elizabeth at Hatfield, with many 
significant hints of favour from his King in the time to 
come ; none of which the Princess affected to understand. 
A few weeks before the Queen died, peace negotiations 
were opened between England, France, and Spain ; the 
foolish Earl of Arundel, Dr. Thirlby (Bishop of Ely), and 
Cecil's friend Dr. Wotton being sent to represent Eng- 
land. On the 7th November the Queen was known to 
be dying, and the Council prevailed upon her to send 
a message to her sister confirming her right to succeed. 
Feria arrived a few days before unhappy Mary breathed 
her last, and already he found that " the people were 
beginning to act disrespectfully towards the images and 
religious persons." * From the 7th November until the 
Queen died, on the 17th, matters were in the utmost 
confusion. All the bonds were breaking, and no man 
knew what would come next. The Council had for 
months been drifting away from Philip, and during the 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 

E 



66 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1558 

Queen's last days were openly turning to her Protestant 
successor. 

But their duty kept them mostly at court ; whereas 
Cecil, being free from office, went backwards and for- 
wards between Cannon Row and Hatfield, making 
arrangements for the formation of a new Government 
when the sovereign should die. Feria writes that on the 
day the new Queen was proclaimed (17th November 
1558), the Council decided that Archbishop Heath, Lord 
Admiral Clinton, the Earls of Shrewsbury, Pembroke, 
and Derby, and Lord William Howard should proceed 
to Hatfield, whilst the rest stayed behind ; " but every 
one wanted to be the first to get out." When they arrived 
at the residence of the young Queen, Cecil was already 
there and the appointments decided upon. Cecil was 
the first Councillor sworn, and was appointed Secretary 
of State ; * the others mentioned above, with Paget and 
Bedford, being subsequently admitted ; and the faithful 
Parry, her cofferer, elevated to the post of Controller of 
the Household ; whilst Lord Robert Dudley, the son of 
Northumberland, Cecil's former patron, was made Master 
of the Horse. 

The Catholics, and especially the Spanish party, 
were in dismay. Changes met them at every turn. 
The Councillors who had fattened on Philip's bribes, 
turned against him openly, although some few, like Lord 
William Howard (the Lord Chamberlain), Clinton, and 
Paget, secretly offered their services for a renewed con- 
sideration. But it soon became evident that the two 
men who would have the predominant influence were 
Cecil and Parry, and they had never yet been bought by 

1 Feria had visited Elizabeth at Hatfield a few days before the Queen died, 
and had then written to Philip : "I am told for certain that Cecil, who was 
Secretary to King Edward, will be her Secretary also. He is considered to be 
a prudent, virtuous man, although a heretic." 



1558] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 67 

Spanish money. Only a week after the Queen's accession, 
Feria wrote to Philip : 1 " The kingdom is entirely in the 
hands of young folks, heretics and traitors, and the Queen 
does not favour a single man . . . who served her sister. 
. . . The old people and the Catholics are dissatisfied, but 
dare not open their lips. She seems to me incomparably 
more feared than her sister, and gives her orders, and 
has her way, as absolutely as her father did. Her pre- 
sent Controller, Parry, and Secretary Cecil, govern the 
kingdom, and they tell me the Earl of Bedford has a 
good deal to say." 

Before entering London from Hatfield, the Queen 
stayed for a day or two at the Charterhouse, then in 
the occupation of Lord North. All London turned out 
to do her honour, and she immediately made it clear to 
onlookers that she meant to bid for popularity and to 
depend upon the good-will of her subjects. On the 26th 
or 27th November the Spanish Ambassador went to the 
Charterhouse to salute her. He had been under Mary 
practically the master of the Council ; but the new 
Queen promptly made him understand that everything 
was changed. Instead of, as before, having right of 
access to the sovereign when he pleased, he found that 
in future he and his affairs would be relegated to two 
members of the Council, and when he asked which two, 
the Queen replied, Parry and Cecil. Feria did his best 
to conciliate her — gave her some jewels he had belonging 
to the late Queen, and so forth ; but when he mentioned 
that a suspension of hostilities had been arranged be- 
tween the French and Spanish, she thought it was a trap 
to isolate her, and she dismissed the Ambassador coldly. 
When she had retired, Feria called Cecil and asked him 
to go in at once and explain matters to her, " as he is the 
man who does everything." The effects of Cecil's diplo- 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 



68 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1558 

macy were soon evident. The Queen smiled and chatted 
with Feria, took with avidity all the jewels he could give 
her, coyly looked down when marriage was mentioned, 
but would pledge herself to nothing. " She was full of 
fine words, however, and told me that when people said 
she was ' French/ I was not to believe it ; " x but when 
the Ambassador treated such a notion as absurd, and 
endeavoured to lead her on to say that her sympathies 
were with Spain and against France, she cleverly changed 
the subject. Her sister, she said, had been at war with 
France, but she was not. 

As has already been said, when the deputation of the 
Council arrived at Hatfield, Cecil was there before them, 
and had conveyed the news of her accession to the 
Queen. Naunton 2 says that when she heard it she fell 
on her knees and uttered the words, "A Domino factum 
est illud y et est mirabile in oculis nostris." But whether 
this be true or not, it is certain that the intelligence did 
not come upon her as a surprise ; for Cecil had already 
drawn up for her guidance a document which still exists, 3 
providing for the minutest details of her accession. Some 
of these provisions were rendered unnecessary by the 
universal and peaceful acceptance of the new sovereign ; 
but they exhibit the care and foresight which we always 
associate with the writer. The note runs as follows : 
1. To consider the proclamation and to proclaim it, and 
to send the same to all manner of places and sheriffs with 
speed, and to print it. 2. To prepare the Tower and to 
appoint the custody thereof to trusty persons, and to write 
to all the keepers of forts and castles in the Queen's name. 
3. To consider for the removing to the Tower, and the 
Queen there to settle her officers and Council. 4. To 
make a stay of passages to all the ports until a certain 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 2 Fragmenta Regalia. 

3 Cotton MSS., Titus ex. 



1558] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 69 

day, and to consider the situation of all places dangerous 
towards France and Scotland, especially in this change. 
5. To send special messengers to the Pope, Emperor, Kings 
of Spain and Denmark, and the State of Venice. 6. To 
send new commissioners (commissions ?) to the Earl of 
Arundel and Bishop of Ely (the peace envoys), and to 
send one into Ireland with a new commission ; the 
letters under the Queen's hand to all ambassadors with 
foreign princes to authorise them therein. 7. To appoint 
commissioners for the interment of the late Queen. 
8. To appoint commissioners for the coronation and 
the day. 9. To make continuance of the term with 
patents to the Chief-Justice, Justices of each Bench, 
Barons, and Masters of the Rolls, with inhibition. Quod 
non confer ant aliquod officium. 10. To appoint new sheriffs 
under the Great Seal. 11. To inhibit by proclamation 
the making over of any money by exchange without 
knowledge of the Queen's Majesty, and to charge all 
manner of persons that have made, or been privy to 
any exchange made, by the space of one month before 
the 17th of this month. 12. To consider the preacher 
of St. Paul's Cross, that no occasion be given by him 
to stir any dispute touching the governance of the 
realm. 

It will be seen that every necessary measure for 
carrying on peaceably the government and business of 
the country is here provided for. Within a week of 
the Queen's accession the religious persecutions all over 
the country had ceased, and a few days later all persons 
who were in prison in London as offenders against 
religion had been released on their own recognisances. 
The Queen had already foreshadowed her dislike to the 
harrying of Protestants by refusing her countenance 
to Bonner, the Bishop of London, when, with the other 
bishops, he met her on her approach to London. The 



7 o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1558 

English refugees were flocking back home from Ger- 
many and Switzerland ; and though, for the most part, the 
religious services were continued without marked change, 1 
the Catholics saw that the day of their tribulation was 
coming, and were filled with indignation and fear. The 
measures suggested by Cecil as to the appointment of the 
preacher at Paul's Cross were doubtless adopted, 2 for 
there was no violent ecclesiastical pronouncement against 
the tendency of the new Government until the funeral of 
the late Queen, on the 13th December. White, Bishop 
of Winchester, preached the sermon, in which he attacked 
the Protestants in the most inflammatory language, quot- 
ing the words of Trajan : " If my commands are just, 
use this sword for me ; if unjust, use it against me." It 
was not Elizabeth's or prudent Cecil's line, however, to 
adopt extreme measures at first, and the prelate was only 
kept secluded for a month in his own house. This is a 
fair specimen of the cautious policy adopted by Eliza- 
beth. All of Mary's Council had been Catholics, many 
of them bigoted Catholics, and yet eleven of them were 
admitted to the Council of the new Queen ; the principal 
change being the addition to them of seven known Pro- 

1 A proclamation was issued on the 27th December, that no alterations 
should be made in the rites and ceremonies of the Church, and that no un- 
authorised person should preach ; but a few days afterwards orders were 
given that the Litany, Epistle, and Gospel should be read in English, as in 
the Queen's chapel, which was done on the following day, 1st January, Sunday 
(Hayward). 

3 Hayward's reference to this point would seem to prove that the sermons 
at Paul's Cross were discontinued altogether for some months. He says 
preachers had been warned — in accordance with Cecil's note — to avoid treating 
of controversial points, and to the raising of any " dispute touching govern- 
ment eyther for altering or retayning the present form. Hereupon no sermon 
was preached at Paules Crosse until the Rehearsall sermon was made upon 
the Sunday after Easter ; at which tyme, when the preacher was ready to 
mount the Pulpit, the keye could not be found ; and when by commandment 
of the Lord Mayor it was opened by the smyth, the place was very filthy and 
uncleane (Hayward's "Annals," Camden Society). 



1558] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 71 

testants, who had, like Cecil, conformed in the previous 
reign — namely, Parr (Marquis of Northampton), Cecil's 
friend the Earl of Bedford, Sir Thomas Parry, Edward 
Rogers, Sir Ambrose Cave, Francis Knollys (the Queen's 
cousin), and Sir William Cecil ; Sir Nicholas Bacon, 
Cecil's brother-in-law, another Protestant conformer, 
being shortly afterwards also appointed a Councillor 
and Lord Keeper, but not yet Chancellor, in the place 
of Heath, Archbishop of York. 



CHAPTER IV 

We are told by his household biographer that two of 
Cecil's favourite aphorisms were : " That war is the 
curse, and peace the blessing of God upon a nation," 
and "That a realm gaineth more by one year's peace 
than by ten years' war." He and his mistress plainly 
saw that the first task for them to perform was to put an 
end to the disastrous and inglorious war into which for 
his own ends Philip had dragged England. Here, on 
the very threshold of Elizabeth's reign, Cecil's influence 
upon her policy was apparent and eminently success- 
ful. Cecil came from the Charterhouse to see Feria 
at Durham Place on the 24th November, saying that the 
Queen was sending Lord Cobham to inform Philip in 
Flanders officially of Queen Mary's death ; but two days 
afterwards, one of Feria's spies at court, probably Lord 
William Howard, sent him word that this was not Cob- 
ham's only mission. He was to turn aside to Cercamp, 
on the French frontier, where the peace commissioners 
were assembled, except Arundel, who had hurried back 
as soon as he learnt of the Queen's death, in order to 
take fresh commissions from Elizabeth to Dr. Thirlby, 
Arundel, and Wotton. Feria, on this news, sent post- 
haste to Philip's Secretary of State, telling him to advise 
the Spanish " commissioners to keep their eyes on these 
Englishmen, in case this should be some trick to our 
detriment, as I was told nothing about his going to 
Cercamp till he (Cobham) had gone." * 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 
72 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 73 

But no trick was meant which should divide England 
from the House of Burgundy. The instructions carried 
by Cobham 1 were drafted by Cecil, and made the resti- 
tution of Calais the main point of the English demand ; 
and Wotton was instructed to accompany Cobham to 
Philip, to persuade the latter to support the English in 
their demand. The commissioners, moreover, were in- 
structed to insert in the treaty an article reserving all 
former treaties between England and the House of Bur- 
gundy. Before these instructions reached the hands of 
the commissioners, the suspension of hostilities for two 
months, which had so much disquieted the Queen when 
Feria told her of it, had been arranged. There is no 
doubt that the willingness of the French to agree to this 
suspension had been occasioned by their desire to enter 
into separate negotiations with the new Queen and her 
ministers, with the object of causing distrust between 
Spain and England ; and here it was that Cecil had his 
first opportunity of proving his ability. Lord Grey had 
been captured by the French at Guines, and early in 
January 1559 was allowed to return to England on parole, 
for the purpose, ostensibly, of arranging an exchange. 
He brought with him a message from the Dukes of 
Guise and Montpessart, proposing a secret arrangement 
between England and France. This was not the first 
intimation of such a desire ; for some weeks before, a 
similar but less authoritative message was brought by 
the Protestant Florentine, Guido Cavalcanti, from the 
Vidame de Chartres ; and Cavalcanti had gone back to 
France with kind but vague expressions of good-will 
from Elizabeth. When Lord Grey's message arrived, 
Cecil considered it in all its bearings, and drew up one 
of his judicial reports 2 in which Grey's answer to Guise 

1 Original draft in Cotton MSS., Cal. E. V. 

2 State Papers, Foreign ; also printed in extenso in Forbes. 



74 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

is dictated. With much circumlocution the Queen's 
willingness to make peace is expressed, "if all things 
done in her sister's time be revoked " ; or, in other words, 
that Calais should be restored. But what Grey was not 
told was Cecil's recommendation to the Queen : " It 
seemeth necessary to allow this overture of peace, so as 
neither so to lyke of it, nor so to follow it, as thereby 
any jelusy shall arise in the hart of the King of Spain, 
but that principally that that amyty be preserved and 
this not refused." 

At the same time Dr. Wotton was to be instructed to 
go to Philip, and assure him emphatically, that the Queen 
was determined to remain friendly with him, and to let 
the whole world see it. She had had some hints that 
the French would like to approach her separately, but 
Philip "shal be most assured that nothyng shal be 
doone that maye in any respect either directly or in- 
directly prejudice this amyte betwixt their two Majesties, 
or anything doone but that his Majesty shal be made 
privy thereto ; and thereof his Majesty shal be as well 
assured as he was of his late wyffe's proceedings here." 
Guido Cavalcanti arrived in France before Lord Grey's 
answer to Guise, and the Florentine came posting back 
to England with an affectionate letter from the King 
of France to Elizabeth. 1 Cecil's draft answer to this 
is just as judicious as the previous one. The King of 
France suggested that French and English commis- 
sioners might be mutually appointed to meet. This 
would never do, said Cecil ; secresy was of the first 
importance, and a meeting of Englishmen and French- 
men of rank would be noticed immediately. The 
negotiations had better be carried on directly by cor- 
respondence, and this was the course accepted by the 
French. Whilst the matter was thus being drawn out, 

1 Cotton MSS., Cal. E. V. ; printed in Forbes. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 75 

the disposition of Philip was being sounded. Later in 
the reign, Elizabeth and Cecil had taken his measure, 
and could foresee his action, but in these first negotia- 
tions they were groping their way. Elizabeth had practi- 
cally refused Philip's own suggestion of marriage made 
by Feria, and was now fencing with the proposals of 
his cousins the Archdukes ; but she was careful not to 
drive Philip too far away. Reassuring letters came from 
Wotton. Much, he said, as Philip wished for peace, he 
did not believe he would make it alone, and leave both 
England and Scotland at the mercy of France, as 
" what woulde ensew thereof, a blynde raanne can see." 1 
It was well that Cecil's caution disarmed Philip about 
the French advances ; for Cavalcanti's movements and 
mission were soon conveyed to the Spanish King by his 
spies, and when, at the expiration of the two months' 
truce, the peace commissioners again met at Cateau- 
Cambresis, the King did his best to support the English 
commissioners in their demand for the restitution of 
Calais. His own agreement with France was easily 
made, for Henry II. was seriously alarmed now at the 
growth of the reform party, and gave way to Philip on 
nearly every point ; whilst Philip himself was in great 
want of money, he hated war, and, above all, was burning 
to get back to the Spain he loved so much. But when, 
week after week, he saw that the English commissioners 
stood firm about Calais, he was obliged to speak out and 
assure Elizabeth that he could not plunge his country 

1 It must not be forgotten that Mary Stuart, the young Queen of Scots, was 
married to Francis, the heir to the French throne, and that the disappearance 
of Elizabeth from the throne would almost inevitably have meant the complete 
dominion of both Scotland and England by the French. This would have 
rendered the position of Spain in the Netherlands untenable, and would have 
destroyed the Spanish commerce, and the fact explains Philip's forbearance 
with Elizabeth in the earlier years of her reign. Both Cecil and the Queen 
were fully cognisant of the advantage they derived from the situation. 



76 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

into war again for the purpose of restoring to England 
a fortress she had lost by her own laxity. At length, 
after infinite discussion, the English were forced to con- 
clude a peace based upon the restitution of Calais in 
eight years, the demolition of the fortifications of Eye- 
mouth, and a truce, to be followed by a peace, between 
England and Scotland. 

In the meanwhile, before the peace of Cateau-Cam- 
bresis was signed, matters were growing more acri- 
monious in tone between England and Spain, owing to 
the ecclesiastical measures to which reference will be 
made presently, and also to the haughtiness and want 
of tact displayed by Feria in England. When, therefore, 
news came hither that amongst the conditions of the 
general peace was one providing for the marriage of 
Philip with Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the French 
King, and the establishment of a close community of 
interests between France and Spain, a gust of appre- 
hension passed over the English that they had been 
outwitted, and would have to face a combination of the 
two great rivals. 

Paget — a thorough Spanish partisan and a Catholic 
— had foretold such a possibility as this in February, 
and had entreated Cecil to cling closely to Spain and 
continue the war with France. 1 But Cecil was wiser 
than Paget. He knew that by fighting for Calais we 
should lose both friendships, and he accepted the best 
terms of peace he could get. But when it was a ques- 
tion of the brotherhood between Spain and France, 
and whispers came from French reformers of the secret 
international league to crush Protestantism, then the 
only course to pursue was to disarm Philip and sow 
discord between Spain and France. When Feria saw 
the Queen on the 7th April 1559, the day on which the 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. p. 1 5 1. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 77 

news of the signing of peace arrived in London, he 
found her pouting and coquettish that Philip should 
have married any one but her. " Your Majesty, she 
said, could not have been so much in love with her as 
I had represented, if you could not wait four months 
for her." But in the antechamber the Ambassador had 
a conversation with Cecil, " who is a pestilent knave, 
as your Majesty knows. He told me they had heard 
that your Majesty was very shortly going to Spain, and, 
amongst other things, he said that if your Majesty 
wished to keep up the war with France, they for their 
part would be glad of it. I told him he could tell that 
to people who did not understand the state of affairs in 
England so well as I did. What they wanted was some- 
thing very different from that. They were blind to their 
own advantage, and would now begin to understand 
that I had advised what was best for the interests of 
the Queen and the welfare of the country ; and I left 
them that day as bitter as gall." 1 

Paget wailed that the country was ruined ; Alba, Ruy 
Gomez, and young De Granvelle tried to impress upon 
the English peace commissioners that England's only 
chance of salvation now lay in Philip's countenance. 2 
Feria tried to frighten the Queen by assuring her that her 
religious policy was hurrying her and her country to per- 
dition, and complained that certain comedies insulting to 
Philip which had been acted at court, had been suggested 
by Cecil, her chief minister. But she outwitted him at 
every point. " She was," he said, " a daughter of the 
devil, and her chief ministers the greatest scoundrels and 
heretics in the land." She disarmed him and his master 
by pretending that she would marry one of the Austrian 
Archdukes, who would depend entirely upon Spain ; 
and Spanish agents were still fain to be civil to her, in 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 2 Ibid. 



78 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

hope of bringing that about ; though hot-headed Feria 
soon found his place intolerable, and relinquished it to 
a more smooth-tongued successor. The reason why 
Feria was so especially bitter against Cecil, was that to 
him was attributed the principal blame for forcing 
through Parliament, at the same time as the conclusion 
of the treaty of peace, the Act of Supremacy, recog- 
nising the Queen as Governor of the Anglican Church, 
and the Act of Uniformity, imposing the second prayer- 
book of Edward VI., but with some alterations of im- 
portance for the purpose of conciliating the Catholics. 
The oath of supremacy, however, was only compulsory 
on servants of the Crown ; and the general tendency of 
the Council, and especially of the Queen, was to avoid 
offending unnecessarily the Catholic majority in the 
country. The Queen personally preferred a ceremo- 
nious worship, and several times assured the Spanish 
Ambassador that her opinions were similar to those of 
her father — that she was practically a Catholic, except 
for her acknowledgment of the papal supremacy. 

Cecil's interests at this period were somewhat different 
from those of the Queen. Her great object was to con- 
solidate her position by gaining the good-will of as 
many of her subjects as possible, apart from the ques- 
tion of religion. It was necessary for her to pass the 
Act of Supremacy, in order to establish the legality of 
her right to reign, and some sort of uniformity was 
necessary in the interests of peace and good govern- 
ment ; but beyond that she was not anxious to push 
religious reform, for she disliked the Calvinists much 
more than she did the Catholics. But Cecil saw that 
if the Protestant Church were not established legally 
and strongly before Elizabeth died — and of course she 
might die at any time — the accession of Catholic Mary 
Stuart with French power at her back would mean the 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 79 

end of his ministry, and probably of his life. He and 
Sir Nicholas Bacon, his brother-in-law, with Bedford, 
were consequently regarded by the Spaniards as the 
principal promoters of religious changes. They tried 
hard to divert him, and in the list of Councillors who 
were to receive pensions from Spain he is down for a 
thousand crowns ; 1 but though he treated the Spaniards 
with great courtesy and conciliation, they do not ap- 
pear to have influenced his policy by a hair's-breadth. 
Parry, the Controller, now Treasurer of the Household, 
was a man of inferior talent, and was apparently 
jealous of Cecil. Feria, despairing of moving Cecil, 
consequently endeavoured to influence the Queen by 
fear through Parry. On the 6th March, during the 
passage of the ecclesiastical bills through Parliament, 
the Ambassador, with the Queen's knowledge, arranged 
to meet Parry in St. James's Park ; but at the instance 
of Elizabeth, who did not desire the rest of her Council 
to see her confidential man in conference with Feria, 
the meeting-place was changed to Hyde Park, " near 
the execution place." The Ambassador urged upon 
Parry that the proposed religious measures would cer- 
tainly bring about the Queen's downfall. Parry pro- 
mised that the Queen would not assume the title of 
Supreme Head of the Church, but would call herself 
Governor. But this was all Feria could get ; for a week 
after, when he saw the Queen, he " found her resolved 
about what was passed in Parliament yesterday, which 
Cecil and Vice-Chamberlain Knollys and their followers 
have managed to bring about for their own ends." The 
Queen was excited and hysterical. She was a heretic, 
she said, and could not marry a Catholic like Philip. 
Feria endeavoured to calm and flatter her ; but he 
assured her that if she gave her consent to the bills she 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. p. II. 



80 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

would be utterly ruined. She promised him that she 
would not assume the title of Supreme Head ; but she 
said that so much money was taken out of the country for 
the Pope that she must put an end to it, and the bishops 
were lazy poltroons, whereupon Feria retorted angrily, 
and Knollys purposely put an end to the conversation by 
announcing supper. Parry's influence was small and 
decreasing. " Although," says Feria, " he is a favourite 
of the Queen, he is not at all discreet, nor is he a good 
Catholic, but, still, he behaves better than the others. 
Cecil is very clever, but a mischievous man, and a heretic, 
and governs the Queen in spite of the Treasurer (Parry) ; x 
for they are not at all good friends, and I have done 
what I can to make them worse." 2 Cecil, of course, had 
his way, and the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity 
received the royal assent within a few weeks of this time 
(April 1559). 

In the meanwhile both Cecil and the Queen worked 
hard to divert or mollify the irritation of the Spaniards 
caused by the religious measures. The pretence of a 
desire on the part of the Queen to marry an Austrian 
Archduke was elaborately carried on. Envoys from the 
Emperor went backwards and forwards. The sly, silky 
old Bishop of Aquila, the new Spanish Ambassador, 
tried to draw the Queen into a position from which she 
could not recede. She was coy, interesting, unsophisti- 
cated, and cunning by turns, but never compromised 
herself too far. The object was simply to keep the 
Spaniards from breaking away whilst pursuing her own 
course, and this object was effected. 

The treaty of Cateau-Cambresis was ratified with great 
ceremony in London at the end of May : Francois de 

1 Parry had just been made Treasurer of the Household vice Sir Thomas 
Cheynes. 

2 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 81 

Montmorenci and a splendid French embassy were enter- 
tained at Elizabeth's court, 1 the Emperor's envoy being 
present at the same time to push the Archduke's suit. 
It was Cecil's cue to pretend to the Spaniards that the 
French were now very affectionate, and one day after 
some vicarious love-making with the Queen on behalf of 
the Archduke, the Bishop had a long conversation with 
the Secretary. The latter hinted that a French match had 
been offered to the Queen, and asked his opinion of it. 
If it had not been for the dispensatory power of the 
Pope being necessary, the Queen, said Cecil, would 
.have married Philip; "but the proposal involved re- 
ligious questions which it would be fruitless now to 
discuss, as the matter had fallen through." The object 
of this, of course, was to attract the Spaniards, first by 
jealousy of the French, and next by a show of sympathy 
with Spain. For reasons already set forth with regard 
to English succession, Philip was just as anxious as 
Cecil to avoid a quarrel. " I was glad," writes the 
Bishop, " to have the opportunity of talking over these 
matters with him, to dissipate the suspicion which I think 
he and his friends entertain, that they have incurred 
your Majesty's anger by their change of religion. I there- 
fore answered him without any reproach or complaint, 
and only said that what had been done in the kingdom 
certainly seemed to me very grave, severe, and ill-timed, 
but that I hoped in God ; and if He would some day 
give us a council of bishops, or a good Pope, who 
would reform the customs of the clergy, and the abuses 
of the court of Rome, which had scandalised the pro- 

1 The treaty was ratified simultaneously by the French King at Notre 
Dame, the English special Ambassador being the Lord Chamberlain, Lord 
Howard of Effingham. The correspondence on, and descriptions of, the 
ceremonies in France, will be found printed in extenso in Forbes. An 
account of the festivities in England will be found in Nichols' " Progresses 
of Queen Elizabeth," and in the Calendar of Venetian State Papers. 

F 



82 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

vinces, all the evil would be remedied ; and God would 
not allow so noble and Christian a nation as this to be 
separated in faith from the rest of Christendom." 1 Thus 
the Catholic Bishop met the Protestant Cecil more than 
half-way ; and no more triumphant instance can be 
found than this of the policy of the first few months 
of Elizabeth's reign. The faith of England had been 
revolutionised in six months without serious discontent 
in the country itself. Instead of hectoring Feria flout- 
ing and threatening, the bland Churchman sought to 
minimise differences of religion to the " pestilent knave " 
who had been principally instrumental in making the 
great change. From master of England, Philip had 
changed to an equal anxious to avoid its enmity. The 
altered position had been brought about partly by 
Philip's dread of half-French Mary Stuart succeeding to 
the English throne if Elizabeth should disappear, partly 
by the studious moderation of the English ecclesiastical 
measures, and partly by the care taken by Cecil and the 
Queen to keep alive the idea that the French were court- 
ing their friendship, whilst they themselves preferred the 
old connection with the House of Burgundy. 

How vital it was for England to conciliate Philip at 
this juncture was evident to those who, like Cecil, were 
behind the scenes, although the extreme Protestants in 
the country were somewhat restive about it. Before the 
treaty of peace with France was negotiated, at the very 
beginning of the year 1559, Cecil drew up an important 
state paper for the consideration of the Council, discuss- 
ing the probability of an immediate French attack upon 
England over the Scottish border in the interests of 
Mary Stuart. The religious disturbances in Scotland 
had necessitated the sending of a considerable French 
force to the aid of the Queen Regent, and Cecil says 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 83 

that a large army of French and German mercenaries 
was already collected, which it was doubtful whether the 
English could resist. The questions he propounded to 
the Council were whether it would be better to seize the 
Scottish ports at once before the French fleet arrived, 
or to place England in a state of defence and await 
events. The latter course was adopted, conjointly with 
endeavours to draw Philip to the side of England, and 
the sending of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton to France to 
remonstrate with the King. 1 The occasion given for 
this alarm is stated in Cecil's diary as follows : " January 
16th, 1559. The Dolphin of France and his wife Queen 
of Scotts, did, by style of King and Queen of Scotland, 
England, and Ireland, graunt unto the Lord Fleming 
certain things." 

Throgmorton arrived in Paris on the 23rd May, and 
on the 7th June wrote to Cecil that the Guises and 
Mary Stuart were bribing and pensioning Englishmen 
there, and that Cardinal Lorraine was busy intriguing 
for the sending of a force to Scotland, and for promot- 
ing his niece's claim to the English crown. He was 
"inquisitive to know of such Englishmen as he hath 
offered to interteigne, how many shippes the Queen's 
Majesty hath in redeness, and whether the same be 
layed up in dock at Gillingham, and how many of them 
be on the narrow seas, and whether the new great ships 
be already made and furnished with takling and ord- 



1 Strype. 

2 A great impetus had been given to the building of warships on the 
accession of Elizabeth, and a programme of naval construction was presented, 
providing for the building of twenty-eight ships during the ensuing five years ; 
an enormous increase when it is considered that the whole navy when Mary 
died consisted of only twenty- two sail. The first measure of Elizabeth was 
to turn a large number of the merchantmen, which had been built under 
subsidy, into warships. These were probably the ships referred to by 



84 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

still more alarming. Throgmorton informed Cecil that 
a suggestion had been made to him for a marriage be- 
tween Queen Elizabeth and Guise's brother, the Duke 
de Nemours, to which he had replied that he could not 
say anything about it unless the King of France or his 
Council officially mentioned it. Throgmorton now 
heard that Constable Montmorenci had reproached 
Nemours for making such a suggestion, " adding further 
these words, ' What ! do yow not know that the Queen 
Dauphin hath right and title to England.' " l They only 
waited for an opportunity, said Throgmorton, to say, 
" Have at you." Great preparations were being made 
in Paris for the celebration of the peace with Spain, 
and the betrothal of the King's daughter to King Philip 
by proxy, and watchful Throgmorton soon discovered 
that on all escutcheons, banners, and trophies in which 
the Dauphin's and his wife's arms were represented, the 
arms of England were quartered, and almost daily there- 
after in his letters to Cecil the Ambassador sounds the 
alarm. Cecil himself in his diary thus marks the progress 
of events, 28th June 1559 : "the justs at Paris, wherein 
the King-Dolphin's two heralds were apparelled with the 
arms of England." 2 On the 29th June, at the great tour- 
nament to celebrate his child's betrothal to Philip, Henry 
II. was accidentally thrust in the eye by Montgomerie, 
and in a moment the political crisis became acute. 

Mary Stuart was now Queen Consort of France. 
Her clever, ambitious uncles, Guise and the Cardinal, 
were practically rulers of France, and she herself, as 
Throgmorton says, "took everything upon her," and 
according to Cecil's diary (16th July), " the ushers going 

Cardinal Lorraine. On the 3rd July, shortly afterwards, the Queen was 
present at the launch of a fine new warship at Woolwich, which she christened 
the Elizabeth. 

1 State Papers, Foreign ; in extenso in Forbes. 

2 See also Throgmorton to Cecil, 1st July. Ibid. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 85 

before the Queen of Scotts (now French Queen) to 
Chappell cry, ' Place pour la Reine d'Angleterre.' " As 
soon as the pretensions of Mary were known, Cecil's 
counter move was to send help to the reform party in 
Scotland, and to revive the talk of a marriage between 
Elizabeth and the Earl of Arran, the heir-apparent to 
the Scottish crown. Arran was in France ; and on the 
first suspicion against him of intriguing with the English, 
the King had ordered his capture, dead or alive. Ran- 
dolph and Killigrew were successively sent by Cecil to 
Throgmorton with orders to aid the Earl, and, at any 
risk, smuggle him to England. 1 In disguise he was 
conveyed by Randolph to Zurich, and thence to Eng- 
land, and subsequently into Scotland, 2 to head the 
Protestant party against the French, from his father's 
castles of Hamilton and Dumbarton. Whilst Arran was 
in hiding in England, Cecil was apparently the only 
minister who saw him, and when he left, it was with 
full instructions and pecuniary help from the Secretary. 
Cecil was a man of peace ; but the main point of his 
policy was the keeping of the French out of Flanders 
and Scotland. Now that Guise ambition openly struck 
at England through the northern kingdom active 
measures were needed, and they were taken. 

As usual, Cecil's report on the whole question 3 to 
the Queen judiciously summed up all the possibilities. 
The document sets forth the desirability of an enduring 
peace between Scotland and England, and the impossi- 
bility of it whilst the former country is governed by a 
foreign nation like the French in the absence of its native 
sovereign ; that the land should be " freed from idolatry 
like as England"; and that the nobility should be 

1 The Queen to Throgmorton, 17th and 19th July (State Papers, Foreign). 

2 Sadler to Cecil, 16th September 1559 (Sadler Papers, vol. i.). 

3 Printed in extenso in Sadler Papers, vol. i. 



86 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

banded together with the next heir to the crown (Arran) 
to remedy all abuses. " If the Queen (Mary) shall be 
unwilling to this, as is likely, . . . then it is apparent that 
Almighty God is pleased to transfer from her the rule of 
the kingdom for the weale of it. And in this time great 
circumspection is to be used to avoid the deceits and 
trumperies of the French." Sir William's decision, after 
infinite discussion, is that the cheapest and only possible 
way will be at once to send strong reinforcements to the 
Scottish reformers, and at the same time that Sadler and 
Crofts on the Border should be sleepless, as they were, 
in their efforts in favour of the Protestant Scots. 

There was no matter which concerned Cecil so 
much as this, as will be seen by his many interesting 
letters about it to Sir Ralph Sadler in the Sadler Papers. 
He had gone to Burghley in September 1559, and thence 
wrote to Sadler his anxiety to hear of Arran's 1 safe arrival 
in Scotland. " Th'erle of Arrayn borrowed of me at his 
being at London 200 crowns, which he promised should 
be paid to you, Mr. Sadler, for me. After some tyme 
passed, I praye you aske it of hym." The next day Cecil 
wrote that he had ordered Sadler "to lende the Pro- 
testants money, as of your selve, taking secretly the bonds 
of them to rendre the same ; so as the Quene should not 
be partie thereto." Thenceforward money was secretly 
sent in plenty by Sir William to maintain the Scottish 
reformers who were besieging Leith, but Knox and the 
rigid Calvinists, with their republican and anti-feminine 
ideas, were hated by the Queen, and made matters diffi- 
cult. " Knox's name," says Cecil, " is the most odious 
here. I wish no mention of it hither." " Surely I like 
not Knox's audacitie. . . . His writings do no good here, 
and therefore I do rather suppress them." 2 

1 Arran travelled as a Frenchman under the name of De Beaufort. 

2 Sadler Papers, vol. i. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 87 

But it became evident that the Lords of the Con- 
gregation would be unable much longer to hold their 
own without powerful armed assistance from England. 
This would of course mean a renewal of the war with 
France, and before it could be undertaken it was neces- 
sary to make quite sure of the attitude of Philip, who was 
about to marry the French Princess. On this occasion, 
for the first time, Cecil was met and hampered in his 
action by a counter intrigue within the English court, 
such as for the next twenty years continually faced him. 

When the Queen rode through the city from the 
Charterhouse to the Tower on her white jennet, she was 
followed closely by a handsome young man of her own age, 
who attracted general attention. She had appointed Lord 
Robert Dudley, the son of Cecil's old patron, Northum- 
berland, Master of the Horse at Hatfield on the day that 
Mary died. In less than six months the tongue of scandal 
was busy with the doings of the Queen and her favourite, 
and the Spanish agents were calculating the chances of 
his being made an instrument for their ends. Gradually 
the English competitors for the Queen's hand sank into 
the background, whilst Dudley, a married man, grew in 
favour daily. 1 He was made a Knight of the Garter, to 
the openly expressed annoyance of other older and 
worthier nobles ; money grants and favours of all sorts 
were showered upon him, and the Queen would hardly 
let him out of her sight. So long as the talk of the 

1 The scandalous gossip sent by all the foreign agents in England, espe- 
cially by Feria and his successor, caused much heartburning. Challoner had 
been sent to the Emperor in connection with the Archduke's match, and in 
the Imperial court found scandal rife about his mistress and Lord Robert. 
He writes to Cecil a cautious, confidential letter (6th December 1559), saying 
that "folks there are broad-mouthed" about it. Of course, he says, it is a 
false slander; " but a Princess cannot be too wary what countenance of familiar 
demonstration she maketh more to one than another. No man's service in the 
realm is worthy the entertaining with such a tale of obloquy " (Hatfield Papers, 
part i.). 



88 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

match with the Archduke Charles only dragged on its 
interminable length, Dudley was mildly approving and 
claiming rewards and bribes from the Spaniards in con- 
sequence ; for he knew perfectly well that the negotiation 
was a feint, and that the religious obstacles were unsur- 
mountable. But when, as has been seen, national inter- 
ests led Cecil to play his master-move and checkmate Mary 
Stuart and the French connection in Scotland with Arran 
and the English marriage, Dudley saw that the affair was 
serious, and at once set about frustrating Cecil's national 
policy for his personal advantage. In order to obstruct 
the marriage with Arran, the first step was for Dudley 
to profess himself hotly in favour of the Austrian match. 
His sister, Lady Sidney, was sent to the Bishop of 
Aquila, with the assurance that the Queen would consent 
to marry the Archduke at once if she were asked (Sep- 
tember 1559). Dudley and Parry both came and assured 
the Bishop of their devotion, body and soul, to Spanish 
interests. 1 There was, they said, a plot to kill the Queen, 
and she had now made up her mind to concede the 
religious points at issue and marry the Archduke at once. 
The Queen herself avoided going so far as that in words, 
but by looks and hints she confirmed what Lady Sidney 
and Dudley had said. Between them they hoodwinked the 
Churchman, and he urged upon Philip and the Emperor 
the coming of the bridegroom. After his long talk at 
Whitehall with the Queen at the end of September, the 
Bishop saw Cecil, who by this time was fully aware of 
what was going on, and adroitly turned it to the advan- 
tage of his policy. War with the French in Scotland was 
practically adopted, if Philip could be depended upon to 
stand aloof. When, accordingly, the Bishop approached 
Cecil, the latter, although he avoided pledging himself to 
the Queen's marrying the Archduke, spoke sympathetic- 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 89 

ally about it. But his tone was different from Dudley's. 
" I saw/' says the Bishop, " that he was beating about the 
bush, and begged that we might speak plainly to one 
another. I was not blind or deaf, and could easily per- 
ceive that the Queen was not taking this step to refuse 
her consent after all. He swore he did not know, and 
could not assure me." But then Cecil shot his bolt. 
The French, he said, were striving to impede the Arch- 
duke's match, and had offered great things to the Swedes 
if they could bring about the marriage of Elizabeth with 
the Prince of Sweden. " They (the English) well under- 
stood that this was only to alienate the Queen from her 
connection and friendship with Philip, and thus to enable 
the French to invade this country more easily." 1 Cecil 
then consented, but vaguely, to help forward " our affair," 
and was promised all Philip's favour if he did so. All 
Cecil asked for and wanted was an assurance of the help 
or neutrality of Spain, in the event of a French invasion, 
and this he unhesitatingly got — " if the Queen will marry 
the Archduke," a condition which Cecil, at least, must 
have known would not be fulfilled. 

For the next week or two the Queen surpassed 
herself in vivacity, in pretended anticipation of the 
coming of her Imperial lover. She became outwardly 
more Catholic than ever. Candles and crucifixes were 
again put up on the altars of her chapels, priests 
wore their vestments, and the Spanish Bishop was in 
the best of spirits. All this was going too far for 
Cecil, and was forcing his hand. He wanted to en- 
sure Philip's countenance by arousing jealousy of the 
French, whilst keeping the Archduke's marriage gently 
simmering. But if Dudley and the Queen carried it too 
far, it would either end in mortally offending Philip, or 
in introducing a strong Catholic influence in England, 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



90 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1559 

which would have been the end of Cecil as a minister. 
Feria, in Flanders, saw this clearly enough, and wrote to 
the Bishop to tell Dudley that Cecil would really be 
against the Archduke's business. 1 Dudley's intrigue to 
prevent the Scottish match, not only hampered Cecil, 
but set the whole court by the ears. The Duke of Nor- 
folk and the thorough-going Spanish Catholic party 
formed a plot to kill Dudley, as they knew he was not 
sincere, and would prevent the marriage with the Arch- 
duke, perhaps, at the last moment ; whilst Cecil's own 
Protestant friends, Bedford especially, who did not 
understand his cautious manner of dealing with diffi- 
culties, quarrelled with him about his apparent acquies- 
cence in fresh Popish innovations. 

Dudley's bubble soon burst of itself. The Emperor, 
not under the sway of Elizabeth's charm, was cool. The 
Bishop, as a feeler, fostered the idea that the Archduke 
was already on the way, and then the Queen, Dudley, 
and Lady Sidney took fright and began to cry off ; and 
the Bishop saw he had been deceived (November 1559). 
But Arran's suit had still to be combated, and Dudley 
warmly took up the Swedish match ; whilst the gossips 
whispered that he had decided to poison his wife, and 
marry the Queen himself. Matters had reached this 
stage, when the Bishop's agents began plotting with the 
Duke of Norfolk for the open coming of the Archduke, 
his marriage with Catharine Grey, and the murder of 
Elizabeth and Dudley ; but this required bolder hands 
than Norfolk or Philip, and nothing came of it but open 
quarrels between Dudley and those who he knew were 
planning his ruin. Gradually prudent Cecil worked the 
Archduke's negotiations back again into the stage in which 
they had been when Dudley interfered. > The Bishop was 

1 Feria to the Bishop of Aquila, 1st October 1559 (Spanish Calendar, 
Elizabeth, vol. i.). 



1559] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 91 

courted, an envoy was sent to Vienna, care was taken 
to keep alive Philip's jealousy of the French — more than 
ever to be feared by the Spanish King, now that his own 
Netherlands were seething with disaffection ; and then, at 
last, Cecil was able to accede to the prayer of the Scot- 
tish reformers, 1 and send an English force to their aid. 

On the 23rd December 1559, Cecil could write to 
Sadler, saying that the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Grey 
were on their way north to take command of the army. 
" Our shippes be on the sea, God spede them ! William 
Winter is appointed, as he commeth nigh, to learn of you 
the state of the French navy within the Firth. And it is 
thought good that ye should cause some small vessell to 
goo to hym with your intelligence before he come very 
nigh that towne, lest by tarryeng for your answer his 
voyage be hindered. The French are much amased at 
this our sodden going to sea, so as the Marq d'Elbceuf 
being come to Callise is retorned to Parriss in great hast. 
We lack intelligence from you and be ignorant of what ye 
do in Scotland. We be afrayd of the loss of Edinburgh 
Castle. God gyve ye both good night, for I am almost 
a slepe. At Westminster, hora i2 a nocte 23 Dec. 1559." 2 

1 The original of the address of the Lords of the Congregation to Elizabeth 
will be found in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B x. (printed by Burnet). In 
November the famous William Maitland of Lethington was sent by the Lords 
to England for the purpose of pressing the cause of the Scottish reformers. 
He was secretly received by Sir James Crofts in the castle of Berwick, and 
there, by Cecil's instructions, Crofts gave him a draft written by Cecil of the 
best form in which to make his representation to the English Queen and 
Council. This is a good example of Cecil's foresight and thoroughness. He 
knew that Dudley and other French partisans would oppose in the Council 
the sending of an army to Scotland, and in order to strengthen Maitland's 
hands and avoid the introduction of anything upon which his opponent could 
seize, he himself drafted the address of the Scottish Protestants to the Queen 
and Council. It is needless to say that Maitland adopted his suggestions. 
The original Scotch draft is in the Cotton MSS., Caligula B ix., and extracts of 
it have been printed by Dr. Robertson and Dr. Nares. See also Sadler 
Papers, vol. i. p. 602. 2 Sadler State Papers, vol. i. 



92 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1560 

The fleet of thirty-two sail, with 8000 infantry and 
2000 cavalry, sailed up the Forth exactly a month after 
this letter was written, to the dismay of the French and 
the Queen Regent, who shortly afterwards learnt that 
Elbceuf and his army had been storm-beaten back to 
France. The French and Catholic Scots were now 
cooped up in Leith, with no possibility of receiving aid 
from France ; whilst the English on the Border, and 
the Lords of the Congregation, were organising a strong 
land force to invade Scotland. 

There was nothing more to be dreaded by Philip — as 
Cecil well knew — than a war between England and 
France for the cause of the Scottish Protestants. The 
Spanish alliance with France had aroused the distrust of 
the powerful reform party in the latter country ; and on 
the accession of Francis II. and the Guises to power, the 
Queen-mother, Catharine de Medici, whose chance had 
at last come after years of insult and neglect, at once 
threw her influence into the scale of their opponents, 
the Montmorencis and the reformers. Thrpgmorton 
had been sent to France to form a union between the 
Protestant and anti-Guisan elements in France and 
Elizabeth, and in this he had been entirely successful, 
to the unfeigned dismay of Philip and his agents. 1 This 
combination of Protestants in England, Scotland, and 
France, and probably also in Germany, was a most 
threatening one for Philip's objects, especially in view 
of the condition of his own Netherlands ; and yet his 
hands were tied. He dared not raise a hand to make 
French Mary Stuart Queen of Great Britain, although the 
triumph of reform in Scotland and this combination of 
Protestants struck at the very root of his objects and 
his policy. To the cautious planning of Cecil almost 
exclusively was owing the fact that in one year Philip 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 121, 



1560] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 93 

had been disarmed, and rendered impotent to injure 
a Protestant England. The Spanish Bishop's only 
remedy for it all was to plot with the extreme English 
Catholics to kill Elizabeth, Dudley, and Cecil, and place 
Catharine Grey or Darnley on the throne under Spanish 
tutelage ; and he conspired ceaselessly with that object. 
But his master knew better than he. The French, he 
was aware, would fight to prevent such a result, as well 
as the English, and neither he nor his coffers were in a 
mood for fighting them then ; so he had to stoop to 
peaceful diplomacy, and tried to beat Cecil at his own 
game. The Secretary had continued to answer firmly all 
the Bishop's remonstrances and veiled threats, for he 
knew Philip could not move ; and when it was decided 
to send a special Flemish envoy to England to dissuade 
the Queen from aiding the Scottish Protestants, the 
Bishop almost scornfully told Feria that, if talking had 
been of any good, he would have done it already. 
" They would do more harm than good if they were only 
coming to talk, for the English Catholics expect much 
more than that." " Cecil," he says, " is the heart of the 
business, and is determined to carry it through, until 
they are ruined, as they will be." 1 In the meanwhile 
(April 1560) the siege of Leith went on, notwithstanding 
the attempts of the French to settle terms of peace in 
London. Elizabeth would have nothing to do with any 
peace that left a French man-at-arms in Scotland. 

Philip's Flemish envoy, De Glajon, arrived in London 
on the 5th April 1560, and was very coolly received by 
Elizabeth. 2 In Philip's name he exhorted her to abstain 
from helping the Scottish rebels, and then threatened that 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 The drafts of De Glajon's letters to the Duchess of Parma, describing 
his mission to England, are in B. M. Add. MSS. 28,173a, printed in Spanish 
Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



94 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1560 

if she did not come to terms with the French, Spanish 
troops would be sent to reinforce the latter. She was 
dignified, but alarmed at this, and sent Cecil on the 
following day to discuss the question with De Glajon. 1 
After a conference, lasting five hours, in which Cecil 
recited all the English complaints against France, and 
pointed out the danger to Philip that would ensue upon 
the French becoming masters of Scotland, he positively 
assured the envoy that the English troops would not 
be withdrawn from Scotland until their objects were 
attained. The French Ambassador tried hard to draw 
Philip's envoy into a joint hostile protest 2 to Elizabeth ; 
but the Spaniards knew that their master really did not 
mean to fight, and declined to compromise him. They, 
indeed, assured Cecil privately, that if Philip helped the 
French, it would only be in the interests of Elizabeth 
herself. 

Through all the negotiation Cecil's management was 
most masterly. He had taken Philip's measure now, 
and knew the powerless position in which English 
diplomacy, aided by circumstances, had placed him. 
The Guises had taken his measure too. As week fol- 
lowed week, and hope of help from him disappeared, 
they saw that they must make such terms as they might 
with Elizabeth. The French in Leith were heroically 
holding out, though starving and hopeless ; no re- 
inforcements could be sent from France, for England 

1 Although I can find no hint of such a thing in De Glajon's letters to the 
Duchess of Parma, an entry in Cecil's diary seems to prove that Philip's 
jealousy of France was now so keen as to have led him secretly to approve of 
the English attack in Scotland. The entry in Cecil's own hand runs : " April 
10, M. de Glason came and joined with the Bishop of Aquila to move the 
revocation of the army out of Scotland, but Glason privately to my Lord 
Admiral and me the Secretary counselled us to the contrary." There is in the 
Record Office (printed in extenso by Forbes) a long Latin document in Cecil's 
hand, being his reply or speech to the official representations of De Glajon 
and the Bishop of Aquila. 

2 The French protest is printed by Forbes. 



i 5 6o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 95 

held the sea, and the Queen-mother and the reform 
party would give no help to purely Guisan objects. So 
at last, in May, Monluc, the Bishop of Valence, came 
humbly to London and sued Elizabeth for peace, and 
Cecil and Wotton, with Sir Henry Percy, Sir Ralph 
Sadler, and Peter Carew, travelled to Scotland to meet 
the French commissioners and settle the terms. Cecil 
started on the 30th May, and at the different stages of 
his journey he wrote letters to Sir William Petre. 1 On 
the 31st he writes from Royston : "in no apparent 
doubt of health, yet by foulness of weather afraid to 
ride to Huntingdon till to-morrow." On the 2nd June 
his letter comes from his own house at Burghley, 
" rubbing on between health and sickness, yet my heart 
serveth me to get the mastery." 

His energy, his command of detail, and his foresight 
are remarkably shown in these letters. He spurs Petre 
to do as evidently he himself would have done — to expe- 
dite everything necessary for the prosecution of the war, 
though peace was in prospect ; " to quicken the Lord 
Treasurer for money," and so forth. From Stamford 
he went to Doncaster, Boroughbridge, Northallerton, 
Newcastle, and so to Scotland, always vigilant, obser- 
vant, suggestive ; but in nearly every letter expressing 
deep distrust of the French, whom he suspected of 
treachery at every point. When they met in Edinburgh 
his complaints are constant of their " cavilations " and 
hairsplitting. " They may contend, however, about a 
word," he says, " but I mean to have the victory." 
Before the negotiations commenced, the Queen Regent, 
Mary of Lorraine, died (nth June), and this, by per- 
plexing the French, somewhat facilitated an arrange- 
ment. The most difficult point was the use of the 
English arms by Mary Stuart, and, on the 1st July, 

1 All in Hatfield Papers, part i. 



96 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1560 

Cecil wrote to the Queen that the negotiations had been 
broken off on that point alone. After this was written, 
but before it was despatched, Cecil proposed a "device," * 
by the insertion of a " few fair words " ; and an arrange- 
ment was the result, which stands a triumphant vindica- 
tion of Cecil's policy. 

The French troops were all to be withdrawn, Leith 
and Dunbar to be razed, Mary abandoned her claim to 
the English crown, and acknowledged Elizabeth ; and, 
above all, Mary granted a constitution to her subjects, 
which well-nigh annihilated the prerogative of her throne. 
A Parliament was to be forthwith summoned, which 
should have the power to declare or veto war or peace ; 
during the sovereign's absence the country was to be 
governed by a council of twelve persons to be chosen 
out of twenty-four elected by Parliament, seven of the 
twelve being chosen by the Queen, and five by Parlia- 
ment ; no foreigner was to hold any place of trust, nor 
was an ecclesiastic to control the revenues ; a complete 
indemnity was given for all past acts, civil and ecclesi- 
astical, and the question of religious toleration was to 
be finally decided by Parliament. 

Thus the Scottish-French question, which had been 
a standing menace to England for centuries, was 
settled by the statesmanship of Cecil ; and perhaps 
through the whole of his great career no achievement 
shows more clearly than this the consummate tact, 
patience, firmness, moderation, and foresight that char- 
acterised his policy. Less than two years before Eng- 

1 The " device " proposed by Cecil would appear to have been the clause 
that if the article relative to the abandonment of the royal arms of England by 
Mary and her husband was rejected by them, the point was to be submitted to 
the arbitration of the King of Spain. Cecil's own draft of the clause is at 
Hatfield (Papers, part i.). There is no doubt that Cecil was safe in making 
this condition, as he must have known from his interview with De Glajon 
what Philip's real sentiments were. 



ijfo] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 97 

land under the patronage of Philip was forced to accept 
a humiliating peace from France, and Spanish and French 
agents had intrigued against each other as to which 
of their two sovereigns should use prostrate, exhausted 
England for his own objects. In two short years of 
dexterous statesmanship England had turned the tables. 
Not only had she with comparative ease effected a vast 
domestic revolution, but she was conscious of the fact 
that both of the great Continental rivals were impotent 
to injure her, out of jealousy of each other, whilst her 
own power for offence and defence had enormously 
increased, and the knitting together of the reformers 
throughout Europe had placed her at the head of a 
confederacy which she could use as a balance against 
her enemies. 



CHAPTER V 

1560-1561 

The results achieved in so short a time after Elizabeth's 
accession were due in a large measure to the modera- 
tion and prudence of Cecil's methods. The changes 
which had been made attacked many interests, and ran 
counter to many prejudices ; and the policy of Eliza- 
beth in retaining most of her sister's Councillors had 
surrounded her with men who still clung to the old 
faith and the traditions of the past. From the first the 
Spanish and French Ambassadors had begun to bribe 
the Councillors, and had respectively formed their parties 
amongst those who immediately surrounded the Queen. 
Elizabeth herself was fickle and unstable, yet obstinate 
in the opinion of the moment. Her vanity often led 
her into false and dangerous positions, and already 
scandal was busy with her doings. She was easily 
swayed by the opinions of others, yet fiercely resented 
any attempt at dictation. Her feelings, moreover, 
towards the French were by no means so antagonistic 
as those of Cecil, and the cost of the war in Scotland 
had caused her great annoyance. It will be seen, there- 
fore, that the task of her principal minister in carrying 
out with safety a consistent national policy was an 
extremely difficult one. More than once during the 
Scotch war the French-Guisan party in Elizabeth's 
court had, to Cecil's dismay, nearly persuaded the 
Queen to suspend hostilities, whilst Philip's paid agents 

in her Council were for ever whispering distrust of 

98 



1560] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 99 

Cecil and his religious reforms. Whilst the Howards, 
Arundel, Paget, Mason, and the rest of the Philipians 
— as the puritan Lord John Grey called them — were 
denouncing the minister for his Protestant measures, 
the hot zealots who had hurried back from Germany 
and Switzerland, dreaming of the violent establishment 
of an Anglican Church on the Genevan pattern, were 
discontented at the slowness and tentative character of 
the religious reforms adopted ; and Cecil's own friends, 
like the Earl of Bedford, the Duchess of Suffolk, and 
the Lord Admiral Clinton, were often impatient at his 
moderation. To this must be added the unprincipled 
influence of Dudley, who was ready to swear allegiance 
to any cause, to serve his purpose of dominating the 
Queen, a purpose which was naturally opposed by 
Cecil as being dangerous to the national welfare. It 
will thus be seen that the patient, strong minister was 
surrounded by difficulties on every side ; and but for 
the fact that none of his rivals were comparable with 
him in ability and energy, Cecil must have shared the 
usual fate of ministers, and have fallen before the attacks 
of his enemies. 

He returned from Scotland at the end of July, after 
an absence of sixty-three days 1 and from a letter of the 
Lord Treasurer (Winchester) to him soon afterwards 
(24th August 1560), it is evident that his detractors had 
been at work in his absence. 2 The old Marquis loved to 

1 Cecil was paid during his absence £4 per diem — ,£252 ; and for postage 
with twenty-two horses from London to Edinburgh and back, ,£117. 

2 That this would be the case was foreseen before he started from London 
in May. Killigrew writes to Throgmorton (in France) on the day before 
Cecil's departure, "who (Cecil), for his country's sake, hath been contented to 
take the matter in hand. The worst hath been cast of his absens from hence 
by his frendes, but at length jugged (judged) for the best. ... I know none 
love their country better ; I wold the Quene's Majesty could love it so well " 
(Throgmorton Papers, in extenso in Forbes). 



ioo THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1560 

stand well with all men, but his tendencies we know 
now to have been " Philipian," and he wrote to the 
Secretary : " In the meantime all good Councillors shall 
have labor and dolor without reward ; wherein your 
part is most of all mens ; for your charge and paynes be 
farre above all oder mens, and your thanks and rewards 
least and worst considered, and specially for that you 
spend wholly of yourself, without your ordinary fee, 
land, patent, gift, or ony thing, which must nedes dis- 
comfort you. And yett when your counsell is most for 
her Majesties honour and profitt, the same hath got 
hinderance by her weke creditt of you, and by back 
councells ; and so long as that matter shall continue it 
must needs be dangerous service and unthankful." 

Less than three weeks after this letter was written, the 
Bishop of Aquila went to Greenwich about the Austrian 
match, which still dragged on, when, to his surprise, 
the Queen told him flatly she had altered her mind, 
and would not marry at all. The Bishop then sought 
out Cecil, who, he knew, was now in semi-disgrace, 
owing to the efforts of Dudley in his absence. The 
Secretary was not in the habit of wearing his heart upon 
his sleeve, and if he did so on this occasion to Philip's 
minister, it may be concluded that it was from motives 
of policy, which are not very far to seek. "After 
exacting many pledges of strict secrecy, he said that 
the Queen was conducting herself in such a way that 
he thought of retiring. He said it was a bad sailor who 
did not enter port if he could when he saw a storm 
coming on, and he clearly foresaw the ruin of the realm 
through Robert's intimacy with the Queen, who sur- 
rendered all affairs to him and meant to marry him. 
He said he did not know how the country put up with 
it, and he should ask leave to go home, though he 
thought they would cast him into the Tower first. He 



i 5 6o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 101 

ended by begging me in God's name to point out to the 
Queen the effect of her misconduct, and persuade her 
not to abandon business entirely, but to look to her 
realm ; and then he repeated to me twice over that 
Lord Robert would be better in Paradise than here." 1 
After this Cecil told the Ambassador that Dudley 
"was thinking of killing his wife/' which on the follow- 
ing day the Queen partly confirmed by mentioning 
to the Bishop that she was " dead or nearly so." The 
Bishop's comment upon this is, that " Cecil's disgrace 
must have great effect, as he has many companions 
in discontent, especially the Duke of Norfolk. . . . 
Their quarrels cannot injure public business, as 
nobody worse than Cecil can be at the head of affairs, 
but the outcome of it all might be the imprisonment of 
the Queen, and the proclamation of the Earl of Hun- 
tingdon 2 as King. He is a great heretic, and the French 
forces might be used for him. Cecil says he is the real 
heir of England, and all the heretics want him. I do 
not like Cecil's great friendship with the Bishop of 
Valence." 

Shortly after this was written, the tragic fate of Amy 
Robsart was announced. For months past there had 
been rumours of the intention of Dudley to have his 
wife killed, in order that he might marry the Queen, and 
as the date of Cecil's conversation with the Bishop is 
not quite certain, it is possible that he may have spoken 
with the knowledge that she was already dead. In any 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 The twentieth Earl of Huntingdon (Hastings) was the son of Catharine 
Pole by the nineteenth Earl. He was consequently the grandson of Henry, 
Lord Montacute, the eldest of the Poles, and great-great-grandson of George 
Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, the younger brother of Edward IV. His 
claim to the crown could only be made good by the failure or invalidation of 
those of all the descendants of Henry VII. and Elizabeth of York, daughter 
of Edward IV. 



102 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

case, however, it is certain that, at this time, Cecil feared 
that the Queen's passion for Dudley would bring about 
the downfall of the edifice he had so laboriously built, 
and he sought if possible to lay the foundation for his 
future action. The friendship with the Guisan Bishop, 
Monluc, was clearly a feint, as was also the idea that the 
French would help Huntingdon to the detriment of their 
own Queen Mary Stuart, but it would serve to arouse 
the jealousy of the Spaniards, and would incline them to 
Cecil's side to prevent it. Dudley had in Cecil's absence 
gained most of the advanced Protestant party to his 
side by his open championship of their ideas, and the 
Secretary, finding himself distrusted by his friends, was 
obliged to endeavour to discredit Dudley, to gain the 
sympathy of the Spanish Bishop, and, through him, of 
the " Philipians," who were already opposed to Dudley 
as an upstart and a friend of France. Regarded in this 
light, Cecil's unwonted frankness to the Spanish Ambas- 
sador is intelligible enough. If things went well with 
the Queen, the " Philipians " could keep him in office, 
and if disaster befell her, he dissociated himself from her 
before the catastrophe, and made common cause with the 
party which in such case would certainly be uppermost. 
The danger, however, soon blew over, for Amy 
Robsart's death caused so much scandal as to cover 
Dudley with obloquy, and render him powerless for a 
time, during which Cecil regained his influence. How 
completely he did so is seen in Dudley's enigmatical 
letter to him at the time when he was first feeling the 
effect of the odium of his wife's death. The real mean- 
ing of the letter is not intelligible. Dudley had retired 
from court, probably to Wanstead, and had been visited 
by Cecil, who was having close inquiry made into the 
death of Lady Robert. He appears to have made some 
friendly promise to Dudley, who is effusively grateful. 



1561] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 103 

"The great frendshipp you have shewyd towards me I 
shall not forgett. I pray you lett me hear from you 
what you think best for me to doe ; if you doubt, I pray 
you ask the question (of the Queen ?), for the sooner 
you can advyse me the more I shall thank you. I am 
sorry so sodden a chaunce shuld brede me so great a 
change, for methinks I am here all this while as it were 
in a dream." 1 Dudley's retirement and pretended dis- 
grace, to save appearances, did not last long ; and when 
he came back to court he found Cecil in full favour 
again. 2 Whilst Lord Robert was away Cecil had extracted 
a positive assurance from the Queen direct, that she 
would not marry Dudley. Cecil had thereupon made 
another attempt to revive the Archduke's negotiation, 3 
and at the same time had sounded the Spanish Ambas- 
sador about marrying Catharine Grey to a nominee of 
Philip ; this being a prudent attempt to obtain a second 
connecting link with Spain, now that the negotiations 
with the Archduke had been worn nearly threadbare. 

But the Spanish-Austrian family were not responsive. 
They had been fooled more than once, and were deter- 
mined that Elizabeth should not lead them into a posi- 
tion compromising to their dignity ; but it was necessary 
for those who had the welfare of England at heart to 
take some steps which should render Dudley's hopes 
unrealisable. The Protestant party in the Council, with 
Cecil's acquiescence, again brought up the proposal of 
the new King of Sweden, Eric XIV. He was an eager 
suitor, and had been trying to gain a hearing at inter- 
vals since before Mary's death ; and in answer to 
private messages from England, intimated his inten- 

1 Hatfield Papers, in extenso in Haynes. 

2 Bedford writes to Throgmorton, 16th March 1561, "Cecil is now more 
than any other in special credit, and does all" (Foreign Calendar). The 
Spanish Ambassador says the same. 

3 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 177. 



io 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

tion of coming himself to win his bride. The Pro- 
testants were overjoyed ; for this would have been an 
ideal solution for them, especially now that the situation 
had been unexpectedly changed by the death of the 
young King of France, Mary Stuart's husband (5th 
December 1560). This event, which took away much 
of the Guises' power, and weakened Mary's connection 
with France, now governed by her mother-in-law, 
Catharine de Medici, who hated her, banished in a 
large measure Philip's dread of her accession to the 
English throne ; and the Catholics in England thought 
they saw daylight ahead, if the Queen died childless. 

It was natural, therefore, that the Protestants should 
make a counter move, and actively revive the idea of 
the Swedish match. It was equally to be expected that 
when Dudley thus found himself without any party at 
all but his personal friends, he should seek support in a 
fresh quarter. He was without shame, scruple, or con- 
science. He had betrayed, or was ready to betray, every 
person or cause that trusted him ; his sole object was to 
force or cajole the Queen into marrying him, and he 
grasped at any aid towards it. In January 1561 his brother- 
in-law, Sir Henry Sidney, a Catholic, and a friend of 
Spain, came to the Bishop of Aquila, and assured him that 
Dudley was innocent of his wife's death, though public 
opinion was universally against him. Sidney then went 
on to say that, as Elizabeth's desire to marry Dudley was 
evident, it was surprising that the Spanish party had not 
helped him in his object, and thus gained his gratitude, 
in return for which " he would hereafter serve and obey 
your Majesty like one of your own vassals." The Bishop 
was not eager, for he had been tricked before when the 
Sidneys were the intermediaries ; but when Sidney 
promised that if Dudley were aided to marry the Queen, 
he would restore the Catholic religion in England, the 



i56i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 105 

Churchman listened. He could be no party, of course, 
he said, to a bargain about religion ; but if Dudley really 
wished to repent in this way, he should be delighted. 
The Queen acquiesced in the intrigue, and eagerly 
listened to the Spaniard's advocacy of Dudley's suit, 
though doubtless she did not know that her English 
suitor had promised, in the event of his marriage, to 
hand over the whole government to the King of Spain, 
and fully restore the Catholic faith. 1 

As some earnest of the Queen's and Dudley's chas- 
tened hearts, the Bishop had urged that English pleni- 
potentiaries should be sent to the Council of Trent, and 
the English bishops released who were imprisoned for 
refusing the oath of supremacy. Dudley was willing to 
promise that or anything else ; but in so important a 
matter of State as the recognition of the Pope's Council, 
the co-operation of Cecil was needed. He was, of course, 
opposed to Dudley's suit, but had not interfered openly 
to stop these negotiations, the Bishop says, in conse- 
quence of his having been bribed by the grant of some 
emoluments enjoyed by Parry, who had recently died, 
but more probably because he may really have been at 
the bottom of these negotiations, and he knew that he 
could checkmate Dudley more effectually, if necessary, 
at a later stage. 2 As we have seen, his opposition to 
strong forces was rarely direct. He knew in this case 
that the Queen would resent open thwarting from him ; 
and that it would also have the effect of offending the 
Catholics, and renewing the quarrel with Dudley and 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Cecil appears at this time to have satisfied himself that the Queen did 
not mean to marry Dudley. He writes to Throgmorton, 4th April, saying 
that the Queen was making the Swedish envoy Guldenstern very welcome. 
" I see no small declensions from former dealings {i.e. with Dudley) ; at least 
I find in her Majesty by divers speeches a determination not to marry one of 
her subjects " (State Papers, Foreign). 



106 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

his friends. So when he was consulted, he feigned to 
welcome the project of sending English representatives 
to the Council of Trent, and at once proceeded to kill it 
with kindness. 

The situation in England was an extremely critical 
one. Much public dissatisfaction existed at the Queen's 
questionable behaviour, and the Catholics, especially, 
were greatly disturbed in consequence of the attitude 
of Mary Stuart. The treaty of Edinburgh, the result 
of so much thought and labour, had not been ratified 
by Mary and her husband when the latter died ; and in 
answer to requests on the part of the English Govern- 
ment, through Throgmorton and Sir Peter Mewtys, 
that she would ratify it, Mary declined until she had by 
her side some of her Scottish Councillors. The Scottish 
Parliament had been summoned in accordance with the 
treaty, before the latter had been accepted by the sove- 
reign, and consequently her refusal to ratify the treaty 
raised a host of difficulties on all sides. It was felt univer- 
sally that Mary might well expect now the countenance 
of Philip in her pretensions to the English crown, whilst 
all that was Catholic in France looked to her uncles, the 
Guises, as leaders. The combination was too strong for 
Cecil to face directly, in addition to the Queen's caprice 
and the factions of the English court, and his method of 
dealing with the matter was characteristically prudent. 
During the progress of Dudley's negotiations with the 
Spaniard to bring back England to Catholicism, the 
puritan Earl of Bedford was sent to France, ostensibly 
to ask Mary again to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, and 
to condole with her for the loss of her husband ; but his 
real object was to bring about an understanding with the 
Duke of Vendome, 1 Coligny, and the French Protestants. 

1 Anthony de Bourbon, titular King-Consort of Navarre, husband of 
Jeanne d'Albret, and father of Henry IV. of France. 



1 56 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 107 

At the same time Randolph was entrusted with an im- 
portant message to the Protestant nobles of Scotland. 
He was to tell them that the Protestant princes of Ger- 
many were firmly united ; that the French reformers 
were now the stronger party ; that the Queen of Eng- 
land would stand by the Scots ; and to exhort them to 
be true to the Protestant faith, no matter what efforts 
might be made to move them. Randolph was also to 
approach even Scottish Catholics, and point out what 
a favourable opportunity now occurred, the Queen of 
Scots being free of her French connection, to form a 
close union between England and Scotland. 1 

But whilst this seed was germinating it was necessary 
for Cecil to dally with the Catholics and " Philipians " in 
England. He accordingly went (March 1561) to the 
Spanish Ambassador with a message — secretly purporting 
to come from the Queen, but ostensibly from himself — to 
the effect that it would be a great favour to the Queen 
"and a help to this business" if Philip would write her a 
letter as soon as possible, " urging her, in the interests of 
her country, to marry at once ; and, as she is disinclined 
to marry a foreigner, he advises her to choose one of 
her own subjects, who, in such case, would receive 
Philip's friendship and support." Cecil affected to urge 
this course very warmly upon the Bishop, who, however, 
was wary, and insisted upon knowing definitely whether 
the Queen herself had sent the message. The only 
answer that Cecil would give was that it was not fair 
to drive a modest maiden like the Queen up in a corner, 
and make her personally responsible for steps leading 
to her own marriage. But he told the Bishop that the 
reason Philip's letter was necessary, was that the Queen 
should submit it to a packed deputation of both Houses 
of Parliament, so that her marriage with Dudley might, in 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. 



108 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

appearance, have the sanction of her people. No course 
so likely as this to frustrate the match could have been 
devised, as Dudley himself saw, for he fell ill of vexa- 
tion ; but, as the Bishop says, he was faint-hearted, and 
lacked ability and courage to break through the snares 
that Cecil had spread for him. The Bishop divined the 
plan very soon. "The deputation is being arranged," 
he says, "to suit him and the heretics, who have entire 
control of the Queen. . . . She dares not go against 
Cecil's advice, because she thinks that both sides would 
then rise up against her. 1 

Cecil, "who," he says, "is entirely pledged to these 
unhappy heresies, and is the leader of the business," 
tried on more than one occasion to draw the Spanish 
Bishop into religious controversy — the Bishop thought, 
with the object of discovering whether Dudley or the 
Queen had gone further in their pledges than he had 
been told. He suggested that the Pope should send 
theologians to England to discuss religion with English 
divines, but the Bishop would not hear of it. Then he 
proposed that the Bishop himself should secretly meet 
the Archbishop of Canterbury (Parker) and endeavour 
to bring about a religious modus vivendi ; to which the 
Spaniard replied, that if they were sincere in their desire 
to agree, they had better begin with the main points of 
difference, instead of discussing secondary points of 
dogma. 1 

Cecil assured him that the Queen would send repre- 
sentatives to the Pope's Council, on condition that it 
was held in a place satisfactory to other princes ; that 
the Pope or his legate should preside over the Council, 
not so as to infer that he was the ruler of it, but only the 
president of its deliberations; that questions of faith might 
be decided by Holy Scripture, the consensus of divines, 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, i. 



1561] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 109 

and the decisions of early councils ; that the English 
bishops should be recognised as equals of the rest ; 
and other conditions of the same sort, which obviously 
frustrated — as they were meant to do — all hope of the 
religious compact, upon which Dudley's hopes were 
ostensibly built. In the court, we are told, Cecil went 
about saying that the Queen wished to send her envoys 
to the Council, but that a Council could not judge ques- 
tions of faith, nor could the Pope, as of right, claim 
to preside. 1 On the one hand, he reprehended the 
Bishop of Winchester (Horn) for preaching against the 
authority of the Councils, and caused a meeting of 
bishops to be called at Lambeth, to settle a profession 
of faith to be sent to the Council ; whilst, on the other, 
he told the Spaniard that if when the Pope wrote to 
the Queen he did not give her her full titles of Queen 
of England and Defender of the Faith, she would not 
receive his letters. Well might Quadra say : " I do not 
know what to think of it all : these people are in such 
a confusion that they confound me as well. Cecil is a 
very great heretic, but he is neither foolish nor false, 
and he professes to treat me very frankly. He has 
conceded to me these three points, which I consider 
of the utmost importance, however much he may twist 
them to the other side." Whoever else may have been 
confused, we may be certain that Cecil knew what he 
was about, for he completely hoodwinked and concili- 
ated the Spanish Bishop and the Catholics until his new 
combination was consolidated. 2 The English Catholics 
were more leniently treated ; and the Queen and 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Throgmorton, a zealous Protestant, who was in France, and, of course, 
not behind the scenes in London, appears to have been seriously alarmed, and 
to have thought that Cecil was really about to change his religion. He wrote 
(29th April) almost vehemently exhorting him not to ruin the country by doing 
so (Foreign Calendar). 



no THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

court were almost inconveniently friendly with Quadra, 
who was obliged to whisper to his friends that it was 
all make-believe. He said more truly than he thought 
at the time. At the end of April, Cecil's arrange- 
ments were complete, and the mask could be dropped 
safely. 

At the instance of Randolph the Scottish Lords of the 
Congregation had commissioned James Stuart, Mary's 
natural brother, afterwards Earl of Murray, who was 
already in English pay, to visit his sister in France, and 
influence her to return to Scotland pledged to the treaty 
of Edinburgh, and to place herself in the hands of the 
Protestant party. For the moment the Guises in France 
were in disgrace, and plotting for their own advance- 
ment, so that it suited them to appear to acquiesce in 
an arrangement which promised that their niece should 
take possession of her kingdom without disturbance. 
James Stuart, carefully coached by Throgmorton, went 
back to London with the assurance that all was well. 1 
Mundt, in Germany, had drawn the league closer between 
England and the Princes ; Bedford in France had com- 
pleted a cordial arrangement with Vendome, Coligny, 
and the Protestants; Philip's Netherlands were in seething 

1 When Throgmorton first heard that James Stuart was on his way to 
France he was in great alarm. He was sure that he would be bought over 
by Mary and the Catholic party, who intended to obtain for him a Cardinal's 
hat. Throgmorton thought that no prominent or powerful Scotsman should 
come to France for fear of his falling under the influence of the anti-English 
party. But Cecil saw young Stuart on his way and satisfied himself that 
he might be trusted ; and when Stuart returned to Paris from Rheims on 
his way home, Throgmorton was almost extravagant in his praise of him, and 
regarded him as firmly wedded to English interests, as indeed he was. Mary, 
on the advice of Cardinal Lorraine, refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh 
until she arrived in Scotland ; but she consented to hand over the government 
of her realm to James and his friends until her return. She promised to send 
after him patents under her great seal constituting him Regent, but this she 
failed to do. Nevertheless he went back to Scotland with practically a free 
hand, pending the Queen's arrival in her realm. (Foreign Calendar.) 



1561] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY in 

discontent, his coffers were empty and he was in a death 
grapple with the Turk for the mastery of the Mediter- 
ranean. There was nothing for England to fear, there- 
fore. Circumstances and Cecil's diplomacy had placed 
once more all the cards into his hands, and again he 
could go forward on a straight course. 

The pretext for a change was given by the secret pres- 
ence of a papal nuncio in Ireland. English Catholics 
were suddenly proceeded against all over the country for 
attending mass. Sir Edward Waldegrave and other ex- 
members of Mary's Council were thrown into the Tower ; 
the Pope's legate, who was hurrying with all sorts of con- 
cessions, and an invitation to Elizabeth to send envoys 
to the Council of Trent, was refused admittance into 
England ; and the old Bishop of Aquila found once 
more that Cecil had outwitted him. There were no 
more conciliatory religious discussions or amiable atten- 
tions ; on the contrary, the Ambassador, to his intense 
indignation, was accused of taking part in plots against 
the Queen, and found himself slighted on all sides. A 
great outcry took place that a conspiracy of Catholics 
had been discovered to poison the Queen, the rumour 
in all probability being part of the general plan to 
weaken and discredit the Catholic party ; and Cecil 
himself drew up a paper, still extant, 1 urging her Majesty 
not to place any apparel next her skin until it had been 
carefully examined, that no perfume should be inhaled 
by her which came from a stranger, that no food should 
be consumed by her unless it was dressed by her own 
cooks, that twice a week she should take some contra 
pestunij that the back doors of her apartments should 
be strictly guarded, and so forth. Whether Cecil was 
really apprehensive of danger to the Queen at the time 
is uncertain ; but this general change of attitude towards 

1 Hatfield State Papers, in extenso in Haynes. 



ii2 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

the Catholics in less than four months suspiciously 
coincided with the successful consolidation of the Pro- 
testants throughout Europe, and the paralysation for 
harm both of Spain and France in the matter of Mary 
Stuart. 

How far Dudley was sincere in his approaches to the 
Catholics on this occasion may be doubted. He would 
have been willing, of course, to have paid any price — or 
rather have made his country pay any price — for his 
marriage with the Queen ; but there are circumstances 
which tend to the belief that he and Cecil, for once, had 
joined their forces, Cecil probably promising his support 
to Dudley's suit in exchange for this clever u entertain- 
ing" of Spain and the Catholics until the Protestant 
coalition was formed. In any case, Dudley was in no- 
wise cast down at the rupture of the negotiations, but 
remained on excellent terms with Cecil, and flirted with 
the Queen more furiously than ever. In the meanwhile 
the King of Sweden had made all preparations for visit- 
ing England. The extreme Protestant party had con- 
tinued to encourage him during the time that the Queen, 
Cecil, and Dudley were lulling the Catholics ; but now 
that the Catholic mask had been dropped, Eric's visit 
was very inconvenient to the Queen. Mary Stuart was 
a widow, and every court in Europe was intriguing for 
her marriage. 1 Elizabeth knew that if she was forced 
into a marriage with the King of Sweden, Mary would 

1 For months Throgmorton's spectre was that Mary might marry Philip's 
only son, Don Carlos, which, he pointed out to Cecil, would inevitably ruin 
England and Protestantism. It may be doubted whether Cardinal Lorraine 
had reached this point yet ; though, as will be told, it was broached later from 
another quarter. It is more likely that at this time — the early summer of 
1 561 — the Cardinal's view was to marry his niece to the Archduke Charles, 
Elizabeth's former suitor, which would have greatly strengthened the Catholics 
of Germany and the House of Lorraine. The English Catholics at the same 
time, at the instigation of the Countess of Lennox, were anxiously advocating 
a marriage between her son, Lord Darnley, and his cousin, Mary Stuart. 



1561] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 113 

immediately be wedded to a nominee of Philip, for which 
object Cardinal Lorraine was already planning. Eric 
was therefore refused a passport into England ; l the 
Lord Mayor was ordered to suppress the prints which 
had been scattered by the Protestants, representing Eliza- 
beth and Eric XIV. together (July 1561), 2 and the em- 
barrassment of the Swede's advances was postponed 
until a more convenient season. 

The English Catholics were naturally losing heart. 
They had looked in vain for help from Philip ever 
since the Queen's accession. The war party in the 
Spanish King's councils had ceaselessly urged him to 
overturn Elizabeth and the " heretics" before their 
power was consolidated. Feria and his successor 
the Bishop had done their best to keep alive the 
hopes of Elizabeth's enemies in England ; but as year 
followed year and leaden-footed Philip moved not the 
English Catholics began to cast their eyes elsewhere. 
Mary Stuart arrived in Scotland (19th August 1561) 
surrounded by her Lorraine kinsmen. Elizabeth now 
thoroughly distrusted her, for she saw that she was her 
match in dissimulation, at all events, and made some 
show of intercepting her on the voyage ; 3 but her Scottish 
subjects of all faiths were ready to welcome the young 
half-foreign Queen from whom they hoped so much. 
The country was practically in a condition of anarchy ; 
but the administration, such as it was, was in the hands 
of the reform party under Maitland and James Stuart. 
Although herself devoutly following the Catholic faith — 
to the disgust of the predominant party — the Queen soon 
after her arrival confirmed the free exercise of the Pro- 
testant worship, and for a time both she and her minis- 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Hatfield Papers, part i. 

. 3 Throgmorton to Elizabeth, 26th July, in Cabala. 

H 



ii 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [ij6i 

ters were popular. To the north, therefore, the English 
Catholic party now cast their eyes. Catharine Grey had 
recently contracted a doubtful marriage with the eldest 
son (Hertford) of the Protector Somerset, and was out 
of the question as a Catholic candidate ; but Mary Stuart's 
claim to the English throne was in many respects better 
than that of Elizabeth herself. Lady Margaret Lennox, 
too, was busy in the north of England, where the popula- 
tion was mainly Catholic, plotting for the marriage of 
her son and the subsequent raising of the country in the 
interests of Mary and a Catholic England. 

In the meanwhile Elizabeth was somewhat roughly 
demanding to know why Mary delayed the ratification of 
the treaty of Edinburgh, and jealously watching for any 
signs of matrimonial negotiations to her detriment. The 
Earl of Arran, Elizabeth's candidate for Mary Stuart's 
hand, was extremely unpopular with the Scottish people, 
and soon became impossible as a consort for the Queen ; 
and the carefully laid plans of Elizabeth and Cecil in 
Scotland were seen to be at the mercy of a secret matri- 
monial intrigue, which might be sprung upon them at 
any moment. Maitland of Lethington, Mary's Secretary 
of State, ostensibly a Protestant, went to London 1 and 
saw Cecil in September, in the hope of arranging matters. 
He professed to be sanguine about the Arran marriage ; 
but though bound to the English interest, he protested 
more than once on his return, in letters to Cecil, upon 
the pressure exerted upon his mistress to renounce her 
English birthright, and even begged the Secretary to 
furnish him with a draft of a reply for Mary to send 
which he thought might satisfy Elizabeth. Whilst Lord 
James, Maitland, and Cecil were trying to conciliate and 
calm matters, the zealot Knox and his like were clamour- 

i For Maitland's interviews with the Queen, see Hayward (Camden 
Society). 



i 5 6i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 115 

ing for extreme measures and embittering spirits on both 
sides. Cecil in vain counselled Knox to be moderate ; 
the reply 1 reproaches him for " swimming betwixt two 
waters/' and throws all the blame for the troubles on 
moderate statesmen like Lord James and Lethington, 
"whose mistaken forbearance and gentleness" he de- 
nounces. The young Queen, he says, will never be of 
" our opinion, and in very deed her whole proceedings 
do declare that the Cardinal's lessons are so deeply 
imprinted on her heart, that they . . . are like to perish 
together. ... In communication with her I espied such 
craft as I have not found in such age." 

This opinion must only be accepted as that of a 
bitterly severe man on one whose position was as difficult 
as can well be conceived. English Catholics, Mary knew, 
now looked to her as their only hope. She was a daughter 
of kings, brought up in a deep school of statecraft, and 
was determined to resist the demanded renunciation 
of her birthright in England at the bidding of a rival. 
Her letter to Elizabeth (5th January 1562) 1 explains 
why she declined to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, 
pathetically pleads that the clause in the treaty renounc- 
ing her rights to the English succession was agreed to 
without her authority, and she appeals to the generosity 
of so near a cousin not to make her a stranger to her 
own blood. She will, she says, make a new treaty on 
Elizabeth's own terms, if her rights to succeed, failing 
Elizabeth's issue, are not prejudiced. But on this 
point Elizabeth would never give way. As we have seen, 
it was the keynote of Cecil's policy all his life to secure 
England from the presence of a probable enemy on 
the Scottish border, and this question of Mary's claim 
to the English succession, especially with her marriage 
still undecided, touched the heart of the whole matter. 

1 Hatfield Papers, part. i. 



n6 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

It was evident, moreover, that at this juncture the great 
trial of arms between the Catholics and Protestants 
throughout Europe was at hand. The war of religion 
was already looming near in France and Flanders, 
papal emissaries had incited armed revolt in Ireland 
against the Queen's Protestant measures, and English 
Catholics were in a dangerous state of ferment. 1 It 
was therefore of the most vital interest, not only to 
England and Elizabeth, but to the reform party through- 
out Europe, that no advantage should be given in 
Scotland to vigilant enemies, who, by the control of 
that country, would have been enabled to ruin the 
acknowledged head of the Protestant confederacy. It 
is the fashion to accuse Elizabeth and Cecil of unprin- 
cipled rancour against Mary Stuart. Generosity and 
magnanimity, it may be conceded, were not conspicuous 
characteristics of either of them. But before judging 
too harshly, it should be considered that their lives, the 
freedom and independence of England, and the fate 
of the reformed religion depended almost inevitably 
upon the course of events in Scotland, and both Eliza- 
beth and her minister would have been false to their 
trust if they had not availed themselves of all the means 
which circumstances and the feeling of the times placed 
in their hands to prevent Mary Stuart and her country 
from precipitating their downfall. 

Cecil's position in London also was surrounded with 
difficulties. The Catholics, even those about the Queen, 

1 Lady Margaret, and the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, 
with the Duke of Norfolk, were summoned to London, whilst the Earl of 
Arundel was obliged to absent himself from court (November 1561), and the 
students of the University were in a condition of revolt at the attempt to 
reform the worship in the college chapels. " The whole place," said the 
Mayor of Oxford, "was of the same opinion {i.e. Catholic), and there were 
not three houses in it that were not filled with papists," " whereat the Council 
were far from pleased, and told the Mayor to take care not to say such things 
elsewhere" (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i.). 



1561] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 117 

were busy, and reports of plans for poisoning Elizabeth 
continued without cessation. Everything, great and 
small, had to be done by Cecil. " He has," writes the 
Bishop of Aquila, " absolutely taken possession of the 
Queen and Council, but he is so perplexed and un- 
popular that I do not know how he will be able to 
stand if there are any disturbances." 1 The Queen, 
moreover, fell ill : " she is falling away and is extremely 
thin, and the colour of a corpse." The sorely tried 
Secretary, bearing upon his shoulders everybody's 
burden,, frequently sick himself, 2 but working early 
and late, endeavouring to keep a middle course whilst 
holding to his policy, naturally aroused no enthusiasm. 
Extreme men of all parties cavilled at his methods ; 
only the Queen grew in her trust of him, for she at 
least understood, as perhaps no other person did, that 
he was almost the only person near her who was not 
bribed. The city and the trading classes, however, by 
this time had seen the good results of his commercial 
and fiscal policy. From the first days of the reign he 
had set about reforming the currency, and he enters 
in his diary for 29th May of this year (1561) a state- 
ment which shows that his labours at last bore fruit. 
" Base monies decried and fine silver coined," he writes ; 
and in November a proclamation was issued that Spanish 
gold and silver money, which during the debasement of 
English coin had been a favourite form of currency, 
should no longer be allowed, but should be taken to the 
Queen's mint for exchange into English coin. " The 
Queen," grumbles the Spanish Ambassador, " makes a 
profit on it, as she did with the other money she called 
in." No doubt she did, but the new pure coinage 

1 Quadra to the King, 13th September 1561 (Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth). 

2 The Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield frequently mentions attacks of illness 
about this time, " fitts of ague," or gout, fever, and so on. 



n8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

placed English merchants at an immense advantage in 
trading abroad, and they thanked Cecil for it. 1 "There 
hath/' says Camden, " been better and purer money in 
England than was seen in two hundred years before, 
or hath been elsewhere in use throughout Europe." 
Nor was this all. Shipbuilding under subsidy had 
progressed very rapidly, and English commerce was 
penetrating into regions hitherto unapproached. 2 The 
Hawkinses had already shown the way to the West 
Coast of Africa, but the Portuguese had so far success- 
fully resisted the establishment of a regular trade. English 
ships, however, now found their way down to Elmina, 
on the Gold Coast, with frequency distressing to the 
Portuguese ; whilst English and Scotch privateers, and 
pirates who called themselves such, preyed almost un- 
checked upon Spanish and Flemish small craft about the 
Channel. Against both of these grievances the Spanish 
and Portuguese ministers complained often and bitterly. 
Throughout his life Cecil set his face against piracy in 
all its forms, as being inimical to legitimate trade, and 
at his instance five of the Queen's ships were fitted out 
(1561) for the purpose of suppressing the corsairs ; but 
to the other complaint he turned a very different face. 

A syndicate had been formed, in which Dudley, 
Wynter (Master of the Ordnance), Gonson (Controller 
of the Navy), Sir William Garrard, and probably the 
Queen herself, had shares, to send out a strong ex- 

1 At first the difficulty of obtaining the new coins caused some incon- 
venience, and several of Elizabeth's Councillors were in favour (1562) of a 
fresh debasement of the coinage. By Cecil's and Paget's efforts, however, 
this was avoided, as it was feared that such a measure would cause dis- 
turbance. For the first year or two the demand was so great for the new 
money that the supply was quite inadequate to the demand, but the people 
greatly resented the idea of a fresh debasement. 

2 As early as 1555, in the reign of Mary, Cecil had been one of the 
original promoters and shareholders of the Russia Company, but he always 
steadily refused to share in privateering. 



1 56 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 119 

pedition to establish a permanent trading-station on 
the Gold Coast. 1 There were to be at least four ships, 
one of which, the Mignon, belonged to the Queen. 
Protests and remonstrances from Portuguese and 
Spaniards were freely made to Cecil, who replied 
they could not prevent merchants from going to trade 
where they thought fit. When the Bishop of Aquila 
pressed him further, he answered, " that the Pope 
had no right to partition the world and to give and 
take kingdoms. . . . This idea is the real reason which 
moved them to oppose the legality of our denuncia- 
tion of these expeditions much more than any profit 
they expect to get. . . . They think this navigation 
business will be a good pretext for breaking the peace, 
as your Majesty must needs uphold the Pope's autho- 
rity, against which, both here and in Germany, all will 
join. I feigned not to understand Cecil's meaning, 
and treated the matter as concerning the King of 
Portugal only" (27th November 1561). 2 A draft reply 
in Cecil's hand to similar remonstrances from the 
Portuguese Ambassador in April of the same year, is 

1 The expedition and its object had first been suggested to Throgmorton 
in Paris by an old Portuguese pilot, named Captain Melchior, who had 
formerly lived for many years on the Sus coast and other parts of West 
Africa. He had been a pensioner of Francis I. and Henry II., but on the 
death of the latter, lost his pension. The King of Navarre (Anthony de 
Bourbon) supported him for a time, and then sent him with his scheme to 
Throgmorton, who referred him to Cecil. The expedition itself was unsuc- 
cessful, but was followed by others under the younger Hawkins, which estab- 
lished a lucrative trade in slaves and produce between Africa, the Spanish 
Indies, and England. There is an interesting paper in the Record Office, 
dated 27th May of the following year, 1562, when a Portuguese Ambassador 
was in England remonstrating against the despatch of a new expedition to 
Guinea. It is a full description of the coast by Martin Frobisher, who had 
been for nine months a prisoner of the Portuguese at Elmina. He shows that 
the Portuguese on the coast exercised no control outside of their forts, and 
were so detested by the natives that Frobisher and other Englishmen were 
employed as intermediaries. 

2 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



120 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

still more dignified : "The Queen does not acknowledge 
the right of the King of Portugal to forbid the subjects 
of another prince from trading where they like, and 
she will take care that her subjects are not worse treated 
in the King of Portugal's dominions than his are in 
hers." 1 

Amidst his manifold public anxieties Cecil had to 
bear his share of private trouble. His notes in the Per- 
petual Calendar at Hatfield record the successive births 
and deaths of two infant William Cecils, one at Cannon 
Row in 1559, and the other at Wimbledon in 1561 ; but 
at this period he had a daughter and a son living, by his 
second wife. Thomas, his only son by his first marriage 
with Mary Cheke, was now a young man of twenty, 
and in order that he might receive the polish fitting 
to the heir of a great personage, his father consulted 
Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the Ambassador in Paris, in 
the spring of 1561, with regard to sending him thither. 
Cecil's own idea was to place him in the household of 
Coligny, the Admiral of France, now one of the acknow- 
ledged leaders of the Protestant party ; but Throgmorton, 
who foresaw, doubtless, the rapidly approaching civil 
war, dissuaded him from this. " Though you have made 
the best choice of any man in France, yet for some 
respects I think the matter should be deferred." His 
advice was that lodgings should be taken for young 
Cecil near the embassy, where he might share the 
Ambassador's table. The youth, he thought, should 
be "taught to ride, play the lute, dance, play tennis, 
and use such exercises as are noted ornaments of 
courtiers." 2 A subsequent recommendation of Thomas 
Windebank, the young man's governor, to the effect 
that it would be well to accept Throgmorton's offer, 
although Sir William Cecil was loth to trespass on his 

1 Foreign State Papers. 2 Foreign State Papers. 



i 5 6i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 121 

friend's hospitality, in order that the youth "might 
learn to behave himself, not only at table, but other- 
wise, according to his estate," 1 leads us to the con- 
clusion that Thomas Cecil had thitherto not been an 
apt scholar. Some of the details of Thomas's journey 
are curious. In addition to Windebank he was accom- 
panied by two servants, and three geldings, which, 
Throgmorton thought, might as well be sold, as he 
could obtain others in Paris. The lodgings in Paris 
for the party and horses would cost about ten sun- 
crowns a month, and in addition to the money they 
brought they should have a letter of credit for three 
hundred crowns. Young Thomas had been to France 
before by way of Calais, 2 and on this occasion, that he 
might see fresh country, he went by Rye, Dieppe, and 
Rouen ; and the intention was that he should stay in 
or near Paris for a year, and then proceed to Italy. 
Windebank appears to have been unequal to his task, 
and to have had no control over Thomas. In vain 
Sir William pressed both his son and Windebank to 
send him an account of their expenses, and from the 
first it is seen that the father was misgiving and anxious. 
Cecil was a reserved man, full of public affairs ; but this 
correspondence 3 proves that he was also a man of deep 
family affection, and, above all, that he regarded with 
horror the idea that any scandal should attach to his 
honoured name. In his first letter to his son, 14th July 
1 561, after the arrival of the latter in Paris, he strikes 
the note of distrust. " He wishes him God's blessing, 
but how he inclines himself to deserve it he knows not." 
None of his son's three letters, he complains, makes 

1 Foreign State Papers. 

2 In 1559 Throgmorton speaks of the youth at that period as being of 
great promise — unfortunately unfulfilled. 

3 Foreign Calendar. 



122 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1561 

any mention of the expense he is incurring. He urges 
him at once to begin to translate French ; and then 
says, " Fare ye well. Write every time somewhat to my 
wife." To Windebank the anxious father is more out- 
spoken. How are they spending their time, he asks, 
and heartily prays that Thomas may serve God with 
fear and reverence. But Thomas seems to have done 
nothing of the sort ; for, in nearly every letter, Winde- 
bank urges Sir William to repeat his injunctions about 
prayer to his son. But the scapegrace paid little heed. 

As soon as they arrived in Paris, Thomas sold his 
horse for forty crowns, and kept the money for his own 
spending. Throgmorton was soon tired of him, and 
advised that he should be sent to Orleans or elsewhere, 
away from the heat and distractions of Paris ; but Thomas 
was well satisfied where he was. " Of study there is 
little or nothing yet," he coolly writes to his father, 
after he had been in Paris for a month. They were 
still sight-seeing, and he grows almost eloquent in his 
description of a fight he had seen at court between 
a lion and three dogs, in which the latter were victo- 
rious. They lodged in the house of a gentleman, "a 
courtier and learned, but of indifferent good religion," 
to whom they paid three hundred crowns a month for 
board and lodging ; but this was not by any means all 
the expense. The heir spent .£20 for his winter clothes ; 
he must have a fashionable footcloth for his riding nag. 
The horses, too, were expensive, and Sir William com- 
plained. All gentlemen of estimation here ride, writes 
Windebank, and if he follow not the manner of the 
country, he will be less considered : " if all gentlemen 
ride, it is not meet for Mr. Thomas to go afoot." 

The father was accompanying the Queen during the 
autumn on her progress through Essex, and writes from 
various country-houses to his son and Windebank, beg- 



1562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 123 

ging the former to study, to pray, to avoid ill company, 
to take heed of surfeits, late suppers, prodigality, and 
the like ; but apparently to no effect. Thomas wrote 
rarely and badly, his French did not improve, and he 
still failed to write to his learned step-mother, greatly to 
his father's anger. At length he fell seriously ill, and 
promised amendment, which for a time seemed hopeful. 
Through all the father's anxiety his master passions 
for books, heraldry, and gardening are discernible, as 
well as his pride of race. He constantly orders 
Windebank to send him stated books, and to keep 
on the look-out for new plants, or good gardeners, 
that may be sent to England. In September he re- 
quests that some booksellers' catalogues may be for- 
warded, that he may select some books to " garnish " 
his library. He was anxious that his son should study 
the genealogy and alliances of noble French families, 
and prays that a herald may be engaged to in- 
struct him. But Thomas soon relapsed, and rumour 
of his ill-behaviour reached Sir William, not at first 
from Windebank. In March 1562 an angry and indig- 
nant letter went from Cecil to his son, reproaching 
him for his bad conduct. There was no amendment, 
he said, and all who came from Pari° gave him the 
character of "a dissolute, slothful, negligent, and 
careless young man," and the letter is signed, "Your 
father of an unworthy son." A week later, 2nd April, 
Cecil wrote a characteristic and affecting letter to 
Windebank, which deserves to be quoted nearly in full, 
for it shows us the man more clearly than reams of 
State papers. " Windebank," it runs, " I am here used 
to pains and troubles, but none creep so near my heart 
as doth this of my lewd son. I am perplexed what to 
think. The shame that I shall receive to have so un- 
ruled a son grieveth me more than if I had lost him 



i2 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1562 

in honest death. Good Windebank, consult my dear 
friend Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, to whom I have re- 
ferred the whole. I could be best content that he would 
commit him secretly to some sharp prison. If this shall 
not seem good, yet would I rather have him sent away 
to Strasburg if possible, or to Lorraine, for my grief will 
grow double to see him before some sort of amends. 
If none of these will serve, then bring him home and 
I shall receive that which it pleaseth God to lay on my 
shoulders ; that is, in the midst of my business, for 
comfort a daily torment. If ye shall come home with 
him, to cover the shame, let it appear to be by reason 
of the troubles there. 1 I rather desire to have this 
summer spent, though it were but to be absent from my 
sight. I am so troubled as well, what to write I know 
not." 

Windebank had been protesting for some time his 
own unfitness — which was obvious — and sending hints 
of the ill-conduct of his charge, who had borrowed 
money on the credit of others, and scandalised his 
friends by his dissoluteness ; but at last the long-suffer- 
ing tutor rebelled, and wrote, 26th April, to Cecil, " I 
have forborne to write plainly, but now I am clean out 
of hope, and a 11 forced to do so. Sir, I see that Mr. 
Thomas has utterly no mind nor disposition to apply 
to any learning ; being carried away by other affections 
that rule him, so that it maketh him forget his duty in 
all things ; " and with this Windebank resigns his charge, 
for Thomas had openly defied him ; advocates his im- 
mediate recall if the war in France will allow him to 
come, or otherwise that he should be sent to Flanders. 
But Windebank himself had had enough of Thomas 
Cecil, and refused to accompany him further. 

This instructive correspondence helps us to see 

1 The first war of religion in France. 



1562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 125 

that, beyond even his wounded paternal affection, Sir 
William Cecil's deepest feeling was sensitiveness to the 
opinion of the world about him. That his son should 
be unworthy touched him to the quick ; but that the 
world should see any shame or reproach resting upon 
the heir of his house and name, was unendurable agony 
to one whose main social aims were to trace an ancient 
ancestry and head a noble posterity. 



CHAPTER VI 

1562-1564 

The abortive conspiracy of the Hamiltons in the spring 
of 1562, and Arran's madness, finally proved the hope- 
lessness of his suit for Mary's hand, and Lord James and 
Maitland had now abandoned him. Both of those states- 
men, in union with Cecil, still strove to hold the balance 
evenly, and to avoid religious strife in the country, in the 
hope that if the Scottish Queen married a nominee of 
England, Elizabeth would eventually recognise her as the 
heiress to the English throne. But the agitation of the 
English Catholics, and the attempts of Darnley's mother 
to force matters, had rendered the position extremely 
difficult, and Cecil was busy unravelling plots real and 
imaginary. The visit of a Swedish Ambassador to Scot- 
land on a matrimonial mission had caused a sudden scare 
in London ; but Mary's prompt dismissal of him, and 
her continued amiable letters to Elizabeth, had somewhat 
disarmed suspicion against her personally. Her uncle 
the Marquis d'Elbceuf was splendidly entertained in 
the English court on his way home to France, and 
negotiations were set on foot for a visit of Mary to the 
north of England in the summer, for the purpose of an 
interview with the English Queen. But withal Cecil 
was ill at ease, for the Guises and the Catholics of 
France were now in arms, 1 and it was impossible to 
see how the great struggle of the faith would end. If 

1 The massacre of Vassy, which began the civil war, took place on the 

1st March 1562. 

126 



1562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 127 

the Guises finally captured the government of France, 
then England must accept Philip's terms for a Spanish 
alliance, or be inevitably ruined. But for the present it 
was the policy of Elizabeth and Cecil to keep a tight 
rein on the Catholics in England, 1 and encourage Conde 
and Coligny in France. 2 

The Bishop of Aquila had been growing more and 
more discontented in his palace in the Strand (Durham 
Place). He had no counsels to give to his master now 
but those of violence, for he had been outwitted too 
often to believe in the interested professions of any 
party in Elizabeth's court. But the emissaries of the 
discontented Catholics, the servants of turbulent Lady 
Margaret Lennox, Shan O'Neil, and his train of wild 
gallowglasses — all those who hated Elizabeth and Pro- 
testantism — found in the old Bishop an eager listener to 
their whispered treason. Cecil knew all this, for his 
spies were everywhere. That the Bishop was up to mis- 
chief was clear ; but yet Cecil did not know whether he 
was hatching any plot in connection with Mary Stuart's 
marriage ; and that was the main point of danger for 
the present. The Queen of Scots, it is true, had more 
than once expressed to Randolph, the English Ambas- 
sador, her disapproval of the attitude of her uncles in 
France. If she wished to keep friendly with her own 
ministers and the English Queen, indeed, it was neces- 
sary for her to do so ; but her powers of dissimula- 
tion were known ; the religious struggle had drawn 
the Guises nearer to Philip ; and the Queen-mother, 
herself alarmed at the rising power and warlike atti- 
tude of princes of the blood, like Navarre and Conde, 

1 See Grindall's long list of recusants in prison, in hiding, and in exile at 
the end of 1561 (Domestic Calendar). 

- See Sidney and Throgmorton's letters to Cecil (Foreign Calendar, May 
1562). 



128 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1562 

was once more turning to her Spanish son-in-law and 
the Catholics. A Catholic plot combining the Guises, 
Philip, Mary Stuart, and Catharine de Medici, would be 
threatening indeed, and it behoved Cecil to be watchful. 1 

As Durham House had only been lent to the Spanish 
Ambassador by the Queen, Cecil had appointed the 
English gatekeeper at the gate in the Strand, and 
from him learnt of those who went in and out, even by 
the river stairs. But this was not enough. At the end 
of April he contrived to buy over an Italian secretary of 
the Bishop, a man named Borghese Venturini, from 
whom he obtained particulars of the Ambassador's 
letters. 2 They abounded with treasonable suggestions, 
dark hints at conspiracy, and vituperation of the Queen 
and Cecil, but they disclosed no deep-laid plot of Spain. 
Cecil nevertheless was not satisfied, and kept on the watch. 

The Prince of Conde and the Protestants were now 
in array against the Guises, and Catharine de Medici 
was in the power of the latter. Both sides had striven to 
obtain the help of the German Protestant princes, but, in 
a great measure due to Cecil's foresight, their sympathies 

1 Almost every letter from Throgmorton to Cecil at this juncture sounds 
the note of alarm at the possibility of such a combination. A Portuguese 
Ambassador had recently been sent to England, once more to remonstrate 
about the English trade with Guinea (as fruitlessly as in the previous year). 
He lodged with the Bishop of Aquila at Durham Place, and Throgmorton was 
confident that the real object of his mission was to perfect the arrangement of 
a Catholic rising in England in conjunction with Mary Stuart, the Guises, 
and Philip. The fears, however, were perfectly groundless as yet so far as 
regarded Philip. He was in no hurry to help the Guises until he had them 
pledged body and soul, and had crushed reform in his own Netherlands. But 
of course Cecil was unable to penetrate Philip's policy so well as we can, with 
all his most private correspondence before us. It is worthy of mention that 
D'Antas, the Portuguese Ambassador above referred to, offered Cecil a regular 
pension from his sovereign if he would look favourably upon his interests. 
Cecil's reply is not forthcoming ; but the offer cannot have been accepted, for 
the Secretary never varied in his assertion of the right of English merchants 
to trade on the West African and Brazilian coasts. 

2 See statements of Borghese Venturini (State Papers, Foreign). 



1 562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 129 

were on the side of Conde. Cecil laboured incessantly, 
but against many difficulties, for the Queen was anxious 
to avoid the cost and risk of pledging herself too deeply. 
In an important letter to Throgmorton, 16th July 1562, 
he thus lays bare his plans and his obstacles : " Our 
thynges here depend so upon those matters ther (i.e. in 
France) that yow shall well ynough judg thereof with- 
out advertisement. This hardness here will indanger 
all, I feare. Sir Thomas Wroth, I trust, shall into Ger- 
many with spede : my device is to sollicite them, and to 
offer a contribution for an army to enter France. . . . 
Good Mr. Throgmorton, omitt not now to advertise us 
from time to time, for this Bishop of Aquila letteth not 
weekly to forge new devices. . . . Continue your wryt- 
ing to putt the Quene's Majesty in remembrance of her 
peril if the Guisans prosper. And so, being overweryed 
with care, I end." 1 

There is another document of the same period in 
Cecil's hand, which also shows how earnestly he tried to 
combat the peril, and make the Queen and Council 
understand it. It is a memorial setting forth " the 
perills growing uppon the overthrow of the Prince of 
Conde's cause," 2 and points out that if Conde be allowed 
to fall, the Guises would be supreme in France, " and to 
maynteane their faction they will pleasure the King of 
Spayne all that they maye. Hereupon shall follow a 
complott betwixt them twoo . . . the King of Spayne to 
unhable the house of Navarre for ever clayming the 
Kingdom of Navarre ; and the house of Guise to pro- 
mote their niece the Queen of Scotts to the crown of 
England. For doing thereof twoo thyngs principally 
will be attempted : the marriage of the sayd Queen with 
the Prince of Spayne, and the realme of Ireland to be 

1 Throgmorton Papers ; in extenso in Forbes. 

2 State Papers, Foreign ; in extenso in Forbes. 



130 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [.562 

given in a paye to the King of Spayne." All English 
Catholics, he continues, will be told to make ready, and 
at a given moment rise ; the Council of Trent will con- 
demn all Protestants ; the Guises, Spain, and the Pope 
will unite England and Scotland under Mary, and Pro- 
testantism will be undone. It will be, he says, too late 
then to withstand it, " for it shall be lyke a great rock of 
stone that is fallyng downe from the topp of a mountayn, 
which when it is comming no force can stey." 

Cecil's own efforts were unwearied and ubiquitous. 
Randolph in Scotland, Throgmorton in France, Mundt 
with the German princes, and Sir Peter Mewtys, and 
afterwards Throgmorton with Conde, seconded him man- 
fully. Spies, and secret agents paid by him, were in 
every court and every camp ; the prisons were crammed 
with recusants ; the Earl of Lennox, Darnley's father, 
was in the Tower ; his wife, Lady Margaret, was in 
durance at Shene ; whilst her questionable words and 
treasonable practices were being slowly unravelled by 
informers, 1 the English Catholic nobles were closely 
watched, and for a month every line the Spanish Am- 
bassador wrote was secretly conveyed to Cecil by Bor- 
ghese. Once, early in May, the Bishop's courier, with 
important letters for the Duchess of Parma, was stopped 
two miles beyond Gravesend by pretended highwaymen, 
who were really gentlemen (the brothers Cobham) in 
Cecil's pay, and the man was detained whilst the letters 
were sent to the Secretary to be deciphered and copied. 
At last things came to a crisis, the old Ambassador dis- 
covered that Borghese was the traitor, 2 and the latter in 
fear of his life, having fought with a fellow-servant, fled 
to Cecil. The Bishop was in a towering rage, and com- 
plained bitterly to the Queen. She told him that if she 

1 See the examinations in State Papers, Foreign, 1562. 

2 Sir Henry Sidney divulged it to the Bishop. 



1 562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 131 

suspected that anything was being written in her country 
to her detriment, she should stop posts and examine 
what she pleased ; and when he pleaded privilege, she 
retorted, that he was not privileged to plot injury to her 
in her own realm. In vain the Bishop protested that he 
had not plotted, and railed against Cecil. He only had 
Dudley on his side, and Dudley did not count for much 
in a great emergency like this. 1 The next day (23rd 
May) Cecil wrote a dignified letter to the Ambassador. 
He honours him as the King's Ambassador, he says, 
reverences him as a bishop, and esteems him as a noble- 
man ; and he wishes to know in which capacity he com- 
plains of his acts. He, Cecil, is ready, as a son of no 
mean ancestry, to justify himself to the Bishop in either 
character ; but if the Bishop has " any evil opinion of 
him, he will thank him to address him personally, and not 
complain to others." The Bishop's reply was equally 
stiff. He cannot approve of his, Cecil's, advice on public 
matters, which has great weight with the Queen, but 
that does not diminish his respect for him in his private 
capacity. 2 In vain the Bishop prayed his master to recall 
him if he could not protect him against the insults to 
which he was exposed ; in vain he tried to move Elizabeth, 
by alternate flattery and threats, to restore Borghese to 
him ; in vain he endeavoured to bribe his servant back 
again, or to have him killed ; Cecil was ready for him 
at every turn, and he could do no more than plot and 
pray for vengeance in his private rooms at Durham 
Place, whilst Cecil was examining informers against him 
and the Queen was threatening him with expulsion. 

In the meanwhile Mary Stuart was still on her good 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Bitter as the Bishop was against Cecil's policy, which checkmated him 
on every side, it is only fair to say that he usually speaks of his character with 
great respect. 



132 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1562 

behaviour, in the hope that the statesmen's plan for an 
agreement with Elizabeth on the basis of the recognition 
by the latter of Mary's claim to the English succession 
might eventually be adopted. Secretary Maitland of 
Lethington was in London in the summer in the interests 
of this plan, and for the purpose of arranging the much 
talked-of meeting between the Queens. Mary was eager 
for the interview, from which she expected much, and 
Elizabeth, supported by Dudley, was also in favour of it. 
But Cecil from the first looked coldly upon it, although, 
as usual, his opposition to it was indirect and covert. 
The whole of his policy at present turned upon support- 
ing the French Huguenots in arms, and ruining the 
Guises ; and it is obvious that too close a friendship 
between the Queens would have paralysed him in this 
direction. The matter of the interview was dragged out 
and talked about until the season became too late for it 
to be held that year, and, greatly to Mary's disappoint- 
ment, it was postponed nominally until the following 
summer. The intrigue to marry Mary to Darnley had 
unquestionably gone far. It was warmly supported by 
Catharine de Medici, who was, of course, against a 
Spanish marriage ; by Lord James, as offering the best 
prospect of peace and the English succession to his 
sister ; and by Dudley, because it might furnish a pre- 
cedent for his own marriage with Elizabeth. The latter 
affected to approve of it for a time ; but she dreaded the 
union of the two strongest claimants to her succession, 
and was never really in favour of it. 

Slowly, but surely, Cecil's policy gained ground. To 
cripple the Catholic party in France and destroy the 
influence of the Guises, would render impossible that 
which of all things he dreaded most, namely, a French 
domination of Scotland in the interest of Catholicism. 
With the ostensible object of suppressing piracy in the 



1562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 133 

Channel, a considerable fleet was fitted out in the mouth 
of the Humber, but with the real aim of carrying aid to 
the Huguenots when an opportune moment arrived. 
Protestant Germans and Switzers had flocked to Conde, 
Dandelot and Coligny. Montgomerie held Rouen against 
the Guises, and the Vidame de Chartres seized Havre de 
Grace. An emissary came from the Vidame in July, to 
offer this important port to the Queen of England as a 
base from which to help the reformers. The offer was 
a tempting one, for it might enable her to insist later upon 
the restoration of Calais ; but Elizabeth was distrustful. 1 
Philip's sister, the Governess of the Netherlands, sent 
a remonstrance, shocked at the very idea that a Queen 
should send aid to rebels against their sovereign ; Catha- 
rine de Medici despatched Marshal Vielleville to threaten 
Elizabeth with a national war both with France and Spain 
if she sent assistance to Conde and those who were in 
arms against the Government. But Philip's Netherlands 
were now in almost open revolt, and though he made a 
show of sending troops to help the French Catholics, it was 
evident that he could not do much, and for the present 
Elizabeth and Cecil could disregard him, knowing that 
if the worst came to the worst, he would never allow 
the French influence in England to become dominant. 
On the 20th September, Elizabeth signed the treaty by 
which she agreed to send a large sum of money and 
6000 troops to France to aid Conde ; 3000 of which 
were to hold Havre, and the rest to reinforce the 
Huguenots in Dieppe and Rouen. Elizabeth, in a 
proclamation drawn up by Cecil, swore that she took 
this step for the defence of the French King, 2 and 

1 Dudley wrote to Throgmorton (May 1562) that the Queen was favour- 
able to Conde and the Huguenots, " but her Majestie seemeth very wareful in 
too much open show towards them " (State Papers, Foreign). 

'-' In extenso in Forbes. 



134 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1562 

sent all sorts of reassuring messages to Catharine and 
her son ; but the pregnant fact still remained, that civil 
war in France was to be promoted by an English 
army, and that the Queen of England had for the first 
time openly assumed the position of leader of the Pro- 
testant faith throughout the world, in defiance of the 
Governments both of France and Spain. 

How great was the Queen's hesitation to the last at 
assuming this vast responsibility is seen in a letter from 
Cecil to his old friend, Sir Thomas Smith, who was sent 
to replace Throgmorton as Ambassador to France (Sir 
Nicholas remaining with Conde) only a week before the 
English force actually sailed (22nd September 1562). 
" When our men shall goo," he writes, " or whether they 
shall goo or not, I cannot mak certain. I mean to send 
yovv as soon as the fact is enterprised. . . . We begyn 
to hear of towardness to accord, and then we shall 
lose much labour." The troops sailed under Sir Adrian 
Poynings on the 27th September, and were subsequently 
commanded by the Earl of Warwick, Dudley's brother. 
Suddenly, a few days afterwards, the Queen fell ill of 
smallpox at Hampton Court, and for a time was like to 
die. The confusion of the court was great, for the 
succession was still undecided. Dudley and a consider- 
able party of his friends were openly, almost violently, 
in favour of the Earl of Huntingdon ; whilst others 
headed by Cecil were strongly desirous of follow- 
ing the will of Henry VIII., and adopting Catharine 
Grey. The Catholics were divided, and advised the 
examination of the question from a legal point of 
view ; but whilst the dissensions were in progress, 
the Queen unexpectedly rallied and the danger passed. 
During her peril she had expressed the most extravagant 
affection for Dudley, and begged the Council to appoint 
him Protector ; but with her recovery affairs assumed 



1562] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 135 

their normal course, the only outcome of the illness being 
the great strengthening of Dudley's influence, and his 
appointment to the Council with the Duke of Norfolk. 
The effect of Dudley's rise, which meant the temporary 
decline of Cecil, was soon seen. The fall of Rouen and 
Dieppe to the King caused the English contingent to be 
concentrated at Havre, where a reinforcement of 2000 
more men was reported to be required to hold the place. 
The Queen began to look with alarm at her responsibility, 
and the Council was prompt in throwing the blame upon 
Cecil, who absented himself from the meetings on the 
pretext of illness. Secret attempts were made also to 
bring about a pacification between Conde, the Guises, 
the Queen-mother and England, greatly to the disgust 
of Throgmorton, who dreaded a close friendship with 
the French as much as Cecil himself. 

The negotiations with Catharine de Medici were con- 
ducted by Smith, and were based upon the restoration of 
Calais to Elizabeth, the toleration of Protestantism in 
France, and the assurance of the Guises that they would 
not interfere in Scotland ; 1 but whilst they were in pro- 
gress the war followed its course. The King of Navarre 
fell fighting before Rouen against his former friends, the 
Protestants ; at the great battle of Dreux (19th December 
1562), Cond6, the Protestant chief, and Constable Mont- 
morenci on the Catholic side, were taken prisoners, and 
Coligny, with a mere remnant of his Protestants, alone 

1 Smith sent a message to Throgmorton (2 1st November 1562) assuring 
him that his peace negotiations with the Queen-mother and his friendship 
with the Cardinal were not sincere, but only to "discover their minds." It is 
hardly probable that this was the case ; although Smith, as a zealous Protes- 
tant, certainly did not anticipate the abandonment of the cause of the reformers. 
Much less did he intend for England to be thrown over by both sides as she 
was. In a letter to Cecil (17th December) he relates his indignant remon- 
strance to the Queen-mother when he heard that the Guisans in Paris had 
issued a proclamation of war against Queen Elizabeth as an enemy of the 
faith. (Letters in cxtoiso in Forbes.) 



136 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

kept the field. At the siege of Orleans (18th February 
1563), Guise was assassinated, and a pacification then 
became possible. Conde, away from honest Coligny and 
La Noue, was but a weak vessel, as his brother Navarre 
had been, and Catharine well knew how to manage such 
men. All of Cecil's distrust of the French was justified, 
and the shameful treaty of Amboise was signed (19th 
March), leaving Elizabeth and the English in the lurch. 
The moment that English policy escaped from the 
capable hands of Cecil, to pass temporarily under the 
lamentable influence of Dudley, disaster and failure were 
the inevitable result. 

The Queen could do no more than rail at Conde's 
envoy, Briquemault, and call his master a lying scamp ; 
pestilence and famine decimated the English garrison at 
Havre, closely beleaguered by the French ; and in the 
autumn of 1563 the force had to be withdrawn without 
glory or material satisfaction. Before this happened, how- 
ever, cautious Cecil was gradually working affairs into his 
own groove again. Dudley had continued to send amiable 
messages to the Spanish Ambassador, whilst promoting an 
agreement with the French Government, and had exer- 
cised his influence in favour of the release of Lennox 
from the Tower ; the object being in both cases to curry 
favour with the Catholics, and so to diminish Cecil's 
power. As usual the Secretary's opposition was an in- 
direct one. His spies had kept him informed of the old 
Spanish Bishop's continued correspondence with Shan 
O'Neil ; of his having received and encouraged foolish 
Arthur Pole in his treason, and having allowed English 
people, against the law, to attend the embassy mass ; and 
he watched and waited for an opportunity to demonstrate 
to the Catholics the powerlessness of both the Bishop 
and his master. He had not to wait long. One evening 
at the beginning of January 1563, as the light was failing, 



1563] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 137 

a knot of idle hangers-on of the Bishop's household were 
lounging at the great gate of Durham Place opening to 
the Strand. An Italian Protestant captain, in the service 
of the Vidame de Chartres, swaggered down the street 
on his way to Whitehall, and from the Bishop's gateway 
a lad shot a harquebuss at him, and missed him. The 
captain whipped out his long rapier and pursued the 
would-be murderer to the outer courtyard. The Bishop's 
servants closed the gates against the pursuers, and the 
assassin ran up shouting to the door of the chamber 
where the Ambassador was playing cards with the 
French Ambassador and a Guisan hostage, Nantouillet, 
Provost, of Paris. A few hurried words of explanation 
at the door — for the Guisan had paid the boy to do the 
act — and the assassin was hurried down to the water 
gate, where a boat was in waiting, and he was allowed to 
escape, whilst his pursuers were thundering at the solid 
gates of the inner court. 

This was enough for Cecil. New locks were put 
on the house gates, and the keys held by the " heretic 
English gatekeeper." The Bishop could obtain no in- 
terview with the Queen, but was obliged to see Cecil 
instead. Send me to jail, he indignantly pleaded, if 
I have offended ; but if nothing is proved against me, 
as nothing can be, at least let me have free ingress 
and egress from my own house. Cecil's reply was a 
long indictment of the Bishop's whole proceedings. The 
Ambassador, he said, was by the Queen's kindness living 
in one of her houses, which had been turned into a hot- 
bed of conspiracies against her and a refuge for male- 
factors. The law of the land had been openly defied, 
and the Queen desired the Ambassador to quit her 
house. In vain the Bishop protested. One indignity 
after another was placed upon him. The folks going 
to mass in the embassy were haled off to prison as they 



138 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

came out ; all the most private conversations between 
the Ambassador and the English rebels were repeated to 
him by Cecil ; he was confronted with the text of his most 
secret despatches ; he was turned out of Durham House 
with ignominy, and all he could do was to weep tears of 
rage, and pray Philip to avenge him. 1 But Philip's 
hands were more than full in the Netherlands now, 
as Cecil knew, for before the writing-table in the Secre- 
tary's room in Cecil House 2 there stood a portrait of 
Count Egmont, 3 and Gresham's agents in Antwerp, 
Bruges, and Brussels left no event unreported. The 
blow to the Spanish Ambassador was cleverly planned 
by Cecil. That the former had been futilely plotting, was 
known, and it served as a good pretext for his disgrace ; 
but the real reason for it was the need to prove to 
Dudley and his friends, and to the discontented Catho- 
lics, that they were leaning on a broken reed when they 
depended upon Spain to help them against the Secre- 
tary. The bankrupt, heartbroken old Bishop was a 
good object-lesson. If his master could not pay his 
debts or defend him from deliberate indignity, much 
less could he help discontented Englishmen who only 
had their own ends to serve. 

Almost simultaneously with the Bishop's disgrace, 
and also partly explaining it, another important move 
was made. The second Parliament of Elizabeth was 
opened on the 12th January 1563 by the Queen herself, 
in great state. The speech of Lord Keeper Bacon dwelt 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Cecil had built for himself (1560) a splendid mansion in the Strand, on 
the site of the present Exeter Hall, the grounds extending back to Covent 
Garden. It was joined on the west by the Earl of Bedford's estate, for which 
in a subsequent generation it was exchanged. Cecil appears to have continued 
in the possession of his house at Westminster, adjoining Whitehall, no doubt 
for business purposes. 

3 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1563] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 139 

at length on the want of order and discipline in the 
Anglican Church, the incompetency of many of the 
ministers, and the want of uniformity in the services. 1 
Cecil himself was offered and refused the Speakership, 
but to him has been attributed the authorship of the 
harangue which the Speaker (Williams) addressed to the 
Queen. 2 The decay of schools and the poverty of bene- 
fices through lay impropriations is dwelt on at length in 
this speech, and the completion of the reform of religion 
and learning in the Queen's dominions advocated. Cecil 
followed this with a speech denouncing the Queen's 
enemies, the Guises and the Catholics, supported by the 
countenance of Spain. The penalties for refusing the 
oath of supremacy were greatly increased, the oath was 
rendered obligatory upon every person holding any 
sort of office, and other acts for insuring the progress 
of Protestantism were made, 3 as well as large subsidies 
granted. The Catholic lords, even the Lord Treasurer 
(Winchester), were uneasy and apprehensive ; but they 
dared not move, for Cecil and the Protestants had now 
a firm grasp of affairs, and the Secretary was vehement 
in Parliament in favour of the proposed ecclesiastical 
measures. The Queen's embarrassments, he said, arose 
entirely from her determination to resist the authority 
of the Pope, who had bribed Spain, the Austrian and 
German princes. She now stood alone, with the Catholic 
world against her, but he exhorted all faithful subjects to 
defend her with laws, life, and property. 4 At the same 
time, as the Parliament was sitting, Convocation as- 
sembled to settle the ritual and doctrine of the Church. 
The. articles were reformed and altered to thirty-nine, 

1 Sir Simon D'Ewes' Journal. 2 Strype. 

3 The Bishop of Aquila, in giving an account of these measures, says, that 
it would seem as if they were designed to mimic the Spanish Inquisition. 

4 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



i 4 o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

the catechism and the homilies were adopted, and other 
measures tending to uniformity of doctrine were agreed 
upon, but in a way which, although it did not satisfy the 
Puritan minority, was intended to include as large a 
number as possible of those who were not irreconcilably 
pledged to the Roman faith. 

Cecil's hand can be traced clearly in all these activi- 
ties, for they struck indirectly at his enemies ; but a 
bolder step in the same direction taken by Parliament 
itself can only be surmised as being prompted by him. 
Dudley had for months been gaining friends for the 
candidature of the Earl of Huntingdon as heir to the 
crown, whilst the Catholics were divided on the claims 
of Mary Stuart and Darnley. Cecil was determined, if 
possible, to prevent the success of either of them, and 
desired to adhere to the Parliamentary title of Lady 
Catharine * (Countess of Hertford). The House of Com- 

1 The marriage of the unfortunate Lady Catharine Grey with Lord Hert- 
ford — the eldest son of Somerset — was contracted secretly, and when the 
birth of a son made the matter public, the Queen was intensely indignant, 
and refused to acknowledge the union, both Lord and Lady Hertford being 
committed to the Tower. Guzman says that Cecil brought about the mar- 
riage ; but there is no evidence whatever of this. Lord Hertford was in 
Paris with Cecil's son, Thomas, when the affair was discovered, and was 
recalled in haste by the Queen. As soon as Cecil heard of it, he warned his 
son not to associate with Hertford. Cecil wrote to his friend Smith at the 
same time, " I pray that God may by this chance give her Majesty a disposi- 
tion to consider hereof (i.e. the succession), that either by her marriage or by 
some common order we her poor subjects may know where to lean and 
adventure our lives with content to our consciences." Greatly to Cecil's 
annoyance the question of Catharine's guilt was referred to him for exami- 
nation and report. He assured Smith in a letter that he would judge impar- 
tially, and he did so ; for Parker, the Archbishop, on his report, pronounced 
against the marriage, but Cecil continued on close terms of intimacy with the 
Grey family, who all called him cousin (Lady Cecil's brother married Catha- 
i rine Grey's cousin), and certainly favoured Lady Catharine's claims under 
I the will of Henry VIII. Cecil cautiously did his best to soften the punish- 
! I ment, and finally obtained the removal of both husband and wife from the 
Tower into private custody. Many letters on the subject from the Greys to 
Cecil will be found in Lansdowne MSS. 2. 



1563] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 141 

mons was mainly Protestant, and under the influence 
of Cecil ; and it was agreed that deputations of both 
Houses should petition the Queen either to fix the 
succession or else to marry, the latter alternative being 
probably added out of politeness. The Queen received 
the deputations very ungraciously. She turned her 
back on the Commons, and for a long time sent no 
answer at all. On an address being presented to the 
Council begging them to remind her, she sent an answer 
by Cecil and Rogers to the effect that " she doubted not 
the grave heads of this House did right well consider 
that she forgot not the suit of this House for the succes- 
sion, the matter being so weighty ; nor could forget it ; 
but she willed the young heads to take example of their 
elders." To the Lords she was more outspoken. She 
asked them whether they thought what they saw on her 
face were wrinkles. They were nothing of the sort, but 
pockmarks, and she was not so old yet that she had 
lost hope of having children of her own to succeed her. 1 
This was a rebuff to Cecil's policy ; but only what might 
have been expected from the Queen, whose principal 
care was to sustain herself without concerning herself 
greatly as to what came after her ; whereas the Secre- 
tary was doubtless thinking of what would become of 
himself and the Protestant party if she died. For Mary 
Stuart, and even her Protestant Councillors, he knew, 
were busy intriguing for the succession, and her claims 
were powerfully supported, even in England. 

Maitland of Lethington came to London during the 
sitting of Parliament to forward his mistress's claims. 
He found Cecil now against the solution which he had 
formerly favoured, namely, the abandonment of Mary's 
present claims in exchange for the reversion, failing 
Elizabeth and her descendants. Cecil was more dis- 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1 42 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

trustful of the French than ever ; for the defection of 
Conde had turned all arms against the English in Havre, 
and he knew that Cardinal Lorraine was still untiring in 
his planning of the Austrian match for Mary, whilst the 
Protestants of France and Germany watched unmoved 
the isolation and embarrassment of England. Maitland 
therefore soon persuaded himself that his mistress had 
not much more to hope for now from the dominant party 
in England than from Elizabeth herself. Mary was con- 
vinced that both Catharine de Medici and the English 
Queen wished to force her into an unworthy Protestant 
marriage with a subject, in order to injure her prestige with 
English Catholics and decrease the power of the Guises. 1 
Maitland consequently cast his eyes to another quarter. 
Mary was determined to fight for the English succes- 
sion, if she could not get it by fair means ; and with 
this end she wanted a consort strong enough to force 
her claims, which her uncle's candidate, the Archduke 
Charles, could not do. She and Maitland accordingly 
threw over the Guises, who did not wish their niece to 
marry a prince strong enough to exclude them y and boldly 
proposed a marriage with Philip's heir, Don Carlos. 
Maitland went one night secretly to the Bishop of 
Aquila in London, and cautiously opened the negotia- 
tion. The Queen of Scots, he said, was determined 
never to marry a Protestant, even if he owned half the 
world, nor would she accept a husband from the hands 
of the Queen of England. The French and English 

1 1 She was probably correct in this. When Elizabeth saw Maitland in 
London she suggested Dudley as a suitable husband to Mary ; and when the 
Scotsman hinted that his mistress was not so selfish as to deprive Elizabeth of 
a person so much cherished by herself, the English Queen, greatly to Mait- 
land's confusion, hinted at the Earl of Warwick, Dudley's brother. Maitland 
cleverly silenced the Queen by suggesting that, as Elizabeth was so much 
older than Mary, she should marry Dudley first herself, and when she died, 
leave to the Scottish Queen both her widower and her kingdom. 



1563] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 143 

Queens were almost equally against her, the Duke of 
Guise was dead, the Archduke Charles was not strong 
enough to help her ; would Philip consent to a marriage 
with his son ? 

Whilst this matter was being discussed by Maitland 
and the Bishop and the Spanish partisans in England, 
the news of the untoward adventure of Mary Stuart 
with Chastelard arrived in London. Mary said it was 
a plot of the Queen-mother to discredit her; but the 
old Bishop was no less anxious than before to urge 
his master to seize such an opportunity as that offered 
by the proposed marriage. But Philip was slow. His 
hands were full and his coffers were empty as usual, and 
whilst he was asking for pledges and guarantees from the 
Scots and the English Catholics, the opportunity passed. 
Philip, in appearance at all events, accepted the sugges- 
tion, in alarm lest a refusal might lead to a marriage 
between Mary and the boy- King of France ; for, as he 
says, " I well bear in mind the anxiety I underwent from 
King Francis when he was married to this Queen, and I 
am sure that if he had lived we could not have avoided 
war, on the ground of my protection of the Queen of 
England, whose country he would have invaded." x But 
whilst Philip was pondering — and it must be conceded 
that this time he had much reason for hesitation — others 
were acting. When Lethington came back from France, on 
his way through London to Scotland, he saw the Spanish 
Bishop again. He found that matters had not progressed, 
and was disheartened. Elizabeth threatened his mistress 
with her undying enmity if she married a member of 
the House of Austria, and Cecil persuaded him that the 
Queen might yet appoint Mary her heir if she married to 
her liking. Lady Margaret, also, was now ostentatiously 
favoured by the Queen, and Maitland returned to Scot- 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



i 4 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

land convinced that it would be unsafe to look elsewhere 
than to England for support, and that, after all, the best 
solution of his country's difficulties would be the marriage 
of Mary and Darnley under Elizabeth's patronage. This 
certainly was the impression that the English Govern- 
ment wished him to convey, for whilst it lasted it would 
check more ambitious schemes which would be dangerous 
to England. 

So far Cecil's policy, though often thwarted by the 
Queen's waywardness and Dudley's ambition, had been 
in the main successful. The French had been kept out 
of Scotland, the Catholics in England had been divided 
and discouraged, whilst waverers were conciliated ; the 
Anglican Church was more firmly established, and Philip 
had been kept more or less friendly, out of fear of a league 
of Protestants on the one hand and of French influence 
in England on the other. Nor was the indefatigable 
Secretary's efforts confined to foreign affairs. The 
strengthening of the Queen's navy and the building of 
merchantmen continued without intermission. Camden 
says that in consequence of this activity there were now 
(1562) 20,000 fighting men ready for sea service alone. 
All the fortresses were put into order for defence, and 
the shortcomings of material and system demonstrated 
in the Scottish campaign were remedied. The ample cor- 
respondence on these points in the Hatfield Papers are 
all endorsed, annotated, or drafted in Sir William Cecil's 
own hand, and no detail seems to have escaped him. 1 

1 Cecil was also much interested in the promotion of mineralogy. A patent 
was granted in 1563 to a German named Schutz who was skilled in the dis- 
covery of calamine and the manufacture of brass therewith. For the working 
of this patent a company was afterwards formed, Cecil, Bacon, Norfolk, 
Pembroke, Leicester, and others being shareholders, and a great impetus was 
given in consequence to the founding of brass cannon. Much encouragement 
was also given by Cecil at this and later periods to German mineralogists for 
the working of English mines. 



1563] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 145 

Notwithstanding his frequent illness, as recorded in 
his journals, his work must have been incessant. In 
addition to his vast administrative duties, he had, on Sir 
Thomas Parry's death, been appointed to the important 
post of Master of the Court of Wards, which assumed 
the guardianship of the estates of minors ; and Camden 
speaks of him as " managing this place, as he did all his 
others, very providentially for the service of his prince 
and the wards, for his own profit moderately, and for 
the benefit of his followers and retainers, yet without 
offence, and with great commendations for his integrity." 
His interest, too, in the universities, and particularly that 
of Cambridge, was constant. He had been appointed 
Chancellor of the University in the first year of Eliza- 
beth's reign, and had worked manfully to introduce order 
and reform into the institution. 1 In June 1562, Cecil en- 
deavoured to resign his Chancellorship, his pretexts being 
his unfitness for the post, his want of leisure, and the 
serious contentions which existed in the University ; but 
the real reason was that which he cited last, namely, the 
tendency to laxity with regard to uniform worship mani- 
fested by a large number of the masters and students. 
" Lastly," he says, " which most of all I lament, I cannot 
find such care in the heads of houses there to supply my 
lack as I hoped for, to the ruling of inordinate youth, to 
the observation of good order, and increase of learning and 
knowledge of God. For I see that if the wiser sort that 
have authority will not join earnestly together to overrule 
the licentious part of youth in breaking orders, and the 
stubbornness of others that malign and deprave the eccle- 

1 In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor (Dr. Perne) in April 1560, Cecil con- 
veyed the pleasant news of the Queen's intention to grant a number of prebends 
and exhibitions to those divinity students that shall be recommended "as 
fittest to receive the same promotions and exhibitions." The object of this 
was to encourage the divinity students to embrace the Protestant form of 
worship, which they were loth to do. (Harl. MSS., 7037, 265-66). 

K 



146 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1563 

siastical orders established by law in this realm, I shall 
shortly hear no good or comfortable report from thence. 
And to keep an office of authority by which these dis- 
orders may be remedied, and not to use it, is to betray 
the safety of the same, whereof I have some conscience. 
. . . And so I end, praying you all to accept this, my 
perplexed writing and complaint, to proceed of a careful 
mind that I bear to that honourable and dear University ; 
whereof, although I was once but a simple, small, un- 
learned, low member, I love," &c., &c. Only on the 
promise of complete amendment on the part of heads of 
houses, and at the intercession of Archbishop Parker, 
Sir William withdrew his resignation and continued his 
labours in favour of the University. 1 

In the autumn of the following year (1564) the 
Queen in her progress was splendidly entertained at 
the University. Upon Cecil as Chancellor, as well as 
Secretary of State, fell the responsibility of making the 
arrangements ; and the letters which relate to the visit, 
as usual exhibit his perfect mastery of detail. From 
the avoidance of contagion of plague (which had de- 
vastated London in the previous year) to the supply of 
lodgings for the visitors, everything seems to have been 
settled with him. He was specially anxious, he said, 
that the University he loved should make a good figure 
before the Queen ; he himself would lodge " with my 
olde nurse in St. John's College," but the rest of the 
University was to be turned inside out for the enter- 
tainment of the court. The choristers' school was made 
into a buttery, the pantry and ewery were at King's, 
Gonville and Caius was sacred to the Maids of Honour, 

1 There is in the Domestic State Papers of 1565 a draft letter of the 
Council, written by Cecil to the Vice-Chancellor, forbidding and ordering the 
suppression in Cambridge of all shows, booths, gaming-houses, &c, as being 
unseemly and dangerous. 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 147 

rushes strewed the roadways, the houses were hung with 
arras ; the scholars were drilled to kneel as the Queen 
passed and cry Vivat Regina, " and after that quietly 
and orderly to depart home to their colleges, and in 
no wise to come to the court." Sir William Cecil with 
his wife arrived the day before the Queen (4th August 
1564). " I am in great anxiety," he wrote a few days 
previously, " for the well-doing of things there ; and I 
find myself much troubled with other business, and 
with an unhappy grief in my foote." But notwith- 
standing his gout, he was received with great ceremony 
and a Latin oration, and was presented with two pairs of 
gloves, a marchpain, and two sugar loaves. His great 
anxiety, expressed to the authorities, was that " uni- 
formity should be shown in apparel and religion, and 
especially in the setting of the communion table." 

Of the endless orations, the presents, and pedantry 
with which the Queen was received, of her own coyness 
about her Latin, of the solemn disputations and enter- 
tainments, this is no place to speak ; but the official 
accounts 1 represent the Queen as being agreeably sur- 
prised at her reception. After the first service at King's 
she " thanked God that had sent her to this University, 
where she, altogether against her expectation, was so 
received that she thought could not be better." This 
was the first day ; but a Catholic friend of the new 
Spanish Ambassador 2 told him that the Queen's com- 
mendations had so elated the authorities that they be- 
sought her to witness one more entertainment. As she 
was unable to delay her departure, the actors followed 
her to the first stopping- place, where the proposed 

1 Full account of the visit, with the speeches, &c, will be found in Nichol's 
" Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." 

2 The old Bishop of Aquila had died, probably of the plague, in the 
previous autumn at Langley, near Windsor. He had been succeeded by Don 
Diego Guzman de Silva. 



148 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

comedy was represented before her. " The actors came 
in," writes Guzman, " dressed as some of the impri- 
soned bishops. First came the Bishop of London (i.e. 
Bonner), carrying a lamb in his hands as if he were 
eating it, . . . and then others with different devices, 
one being in the figure of a dog with the Host in his 
mouth. They write that the Queen was so angry that 
she at once entered her chamber, using strong language, 
and the men who held the torches, it being night, left 
them in the dark, and so ended this thoughtless and 
scandalous representation." 1 

Amongst the long list of honorary Masters of Arts 
made on the occasion, Sir William Cecil was one, and 
on the journey to Cambridge he was honoured for the 
first of many times with a visit from the Queen to his 
house at Waltham, Theobalds, 2 which at this time was 
a small house he had recently built as a country retreat, 
not so remote as Burghley, or so near town as Wimble- 
don. It was his intention, even then, to leave this 
estate to his younger son ; but, as will be shown later, 
it was not meant to be the magnificent place it after- 
wards became. The Queen's frequent visits, says his 
household biographer, forced him " to enlarge it, rather 
for the Queen and her great train, and to set the poor 
in order, than for pomp or glory, for he ever said it 

1 The official account makes no mention of this. It says only that great 
preparations had been made to represent Sophocles' tragedy of Ajax 
Flagellifer. " But her Highness, as it were, tyred with going about the 
colleges and hearing disputations, and overwatched with former plays, . . . 
could not, as otherwise no doubt she would, . . . hear the said tragedy, to 
the great sorrow not only of the players but of the whole University." If 
the scene as described by the Spaniard took place, it must have been at 
the house of Sir Henry Cromwell, the great Oliver's grandfather, at Hinchin- 
brook, where the Queen slept on the night of the day she left Cambridge. 

2 The Queen had, however, supped with him at his yet unfinished 
mansion in London — Cecil House — in 1560, and had there stood godmother 
to his infant daughter Elizabeth (6th July 1564). 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 149 

would be too big for the small living he could leave 
his son. He greatly delighted in making gardens, foun- 
tains, and walks ; which at Theobalds were perfected 
most costly, beautifully, and pleasantly, where one might 
walk two miles in the walk before he came to the end." 1 
We are told that throughout the year at Theobalds, even 
in his absence, Cecil kept an establishment of twenty- 
six to thirty persons, at a cost of ^12 a week. Every 
day twenty to thirty poor people were relieved at the 
gates, and "the weekly charge of setting the poor to 
work there, weeding, labouring in the gardens, &c, 
was ;£io " ; whilst for many years 20s. every week was 
paid to the Vicar of Cheshunt, in which parish Theobalds 
stands, for the succour of the distressed parishioners. 

Cecil was simple and sober in his own living and 
attire, but by his every act he demonstrates his ambi- 
tion to be well regarded by the world, and his deter- 
mination to fulfil what he considered decorous in a 
great personage who owed a duty to his ancestry, 
to his position, and to those who should inherit his 
honours. His letter of advice to the Earl of Bedford 
when the latter was appointed governor of Berwick 
(1564) sets forth in a few words his ideal of. a grand 
seigneur, which might represent a portrait of himself. 
" Think of some great nobleman whom you can take as 
your pattern. . . . Weigh well what comes before you. 
Let your household be an example of order. Allow no 
excess of apparel, no disputes on Princes' affairs at 
table. Be hospitable, but avoid excess. Be impartial 
and easy of access. Do not favour lawyers without 
honesty. . . . Try to make country gentlemen agree : 

1 This splendid place, to which further reference will be made, was 
visited on his first voyage south by James I., who was so enamoured of it 
that he obtained it from the first Earl of Salisbury, Cecil's younger son, 
in exchange for Hatfield. It was at Theobalds that King James died. 



150 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

take their sons as your servants, and train them in war- 
like and manly exercises, such as artillery, wrestling, &c." 

The picture which Cecil presents of his own mind in 
his writings is consistently that of a judicious, cautious, 
acquisitive, and intensely proud and self-conscious man ; 
a man eminently fair, especially to his inferiors, to whom 
it would be undignified to be otherwise ; not wanting in 
courage, but by temperament more inclined to reduce 
an enemy's stronghold by sap and mine than by a 
storming attack; determined that he would stand, no 
matter who might fall, and yet not greedy or selfish for 
personal gratification ; his mind monopolised by two 
main ideas, the greatness and prosperity of England, 
and the decorous dignity of his own house. 

To attribute to him modern ideas with regard to 
liberty, as we now understand it, would be absurd. He 
was a man of great enlightenment, a lover of learning ; 
but he was a statesman of his own age, not of ours. 
That England should be governed by nobles, and that 
he should help the Queen to guide the governors, was 
in the divine order of things. He would do, and did, 
according to his lights, the best he could for all men ; 
but that the ordinary citizen should claim a voice in 
deciding what was best for himself would have appeared 
to Cecil Utopian nonsense to be punished as treason. 
He would be rigidly just, charitable, and forbearing to 
all ; but if any but those on the same plane as himself 
should dream of claiming rights of equality, then im- 
pious blasphemy could hardly be too strong a term to 
apply to such insolence. With opinions such as those 
he undoubtedly held respecting the exclusive right of 
an aristocracy to govern, his own position would have 
been inconsistent if he had not claimed, as he did with 
almost suspicious vehemence, to belong by birth and 
descent to an ancient and noble race. 



CHAPTER VII 

1564-1566 

The efforts that had been made by the English Council 
to benefit native commerce had caused much apprehen- 
sion amongst the Flemish merchants, who had for many 
years practically monopolised the English export trade. 
The English Company of Merchant -Adventurers had 
agitated and petitioned the Queen and Council to dis- 
countenance the foreign merchants ; and as a result, a 
series of enactments was passed which gave considerable 
trade advantages to Englishmen. Differential duties, 
compulsory priority given to English bottoms for the 
export trade, the imposition of harassing disabilities and 
penalties on foreign merchants established in London, 
together with the great increase of piracy owing to 
the extensive shipbuilding of recent years in England, 
had greatly disorganised Flemish trade. During 1563 
and early in 1564, several envoys had been sent from 
Spanish Flanders to endeavour to obtain a reversal of 
the new commercial policy, but without effect. This 
caused reprisals on the part of the Spanish Government, 
which prohibited the introduction of English cloth into 
Flanders and the exportation of raw material from Flan- 
ders to England, as well as the employment of English 
ships for Flemish exports. In retaliation, a more strin- 
gent order was issued in England forbidding trade with 
Flanders altogether, and the establishment of a new 
staple at Embden. The seizure of English goods and 
subjects in Spain itself was the answer to this. Natu- 



152 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

rally, people on both sides suffered severely by this 
commercial warfare. 1 Emissaries went backwards and 
forwards between Flanders and England, partial relaxa- 
tions were temporarily arranged, conferences were held ; 
but the main difficulty continued until Antwerp was well- 
nigh ruined, and the Spaniards were obliged to humble 
themselves in order to prevent a commercial catastrophe. 
The day, indeed, had gone' by now for hectoring Eng- 
land. The old Bishop of Aquila had died bankrupt, 
abandoned, and broken-hearted — Cecil's object-lesson of 
the impotence of Spain — and a very different Ambassador 
had been sent, whose main duty it was to keep Elizabeth 
friendly, and to end, at almost any cost, the commercial 
war which was ruining Flanders. 

Guzman de Silva arrived in London in June 1564. 
He was amiable and courtly, flattered the Queen to the 
top of her bent, and was soon a prime favourite. At his 
first interview at Richmond she showed off her Latin and 
Italian, coyly led the talk to her personal appearance, 
blushingly hinted at love and marriage in general, Cecil 
being all the while close to her side. 2 As soon as the 
compliments and embraces were ended and Guzman 
was alone, a great friend of Dudley's sought him out 
with a message from the favourite, informing him "of 
the great enmity that exists between Cecil and Lord 
Robert, even before this book about the succession was 
published ; but now very much more, as he believes Cecil 
to be the author of the book; and the Queen is extremely 
angry about it, although she signifies that there are so 

1 The details of, and correspondence with relation to this commercial war, 
with the various negotiations, and especially those of the conference of Bruges, 
will be found in the Hatfield Papers, correspondence of the Merchant-Adven- 
turers, Foreign Papers, correspondence of Valentine Dale, Sheres, &c, and 
in the B. M. Add. MSS., 28,173, correspondence of Dassonleville and other 
Flemish agents, as well as in Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 153 

many accomplices in the offence that they must overlook 
it, and has begun to slacken in the matter. 1 The person 
has asked me with great secrecy to take an opportunity 
of speaking to the Queen (or to make such an oppor- 
tunity), to urge her without fail to adopt strong measures 
in this business ; because if Cecil were out of the way, 
the affairs of your Majesty would be more favourably 
dealt with, and religious questions as well ; for this Cecil 
and his friends are those who persecute the Catholics 
and dislike your Majesty, whereas the other man (z'.e. 
Dudley) is looked upon as faithful, and the rest of the 
Catholics so consider him, and have adopted him as 
their weapon. If the Queen would consent to disgrace 
Cecil, it would be a great good to them, and this man 
tried to persuade me to make use of Robert." 2 Guzman 
was cautious, for he knew what had happened to his pre- 
decessor ; but this will show that Dudley was determined 
to stick at nothing to destroy, if possible, the man who, 
almost alone, was the obstacle to his ambition. He was 
liberal in his professions and promises to the Spaniard, 
whom he urged to ask for audience as much as possible 
through him, instead of through Cecil. His friends 
assured Guzman that he still expected to marry the 

1 The book in question was that written by John Hales, Clerk of the 
Hanaper, in favour of the succession of Lady Catharine Grey and her children. 
He had been indicted in January 1564 for " presumptuously and contemptu- 
ously discussing, both by words and in writing, the question of the succession 
to the imperial crown of England, in case the Queen should die without 
issue ; " and thenceforward for months interrogatories and depositions with 
regard to his sayings and doings, and those of Catharine Grey and her hus- 
band, Lord Hertford, continued before Cecil without intermission. (The 
papers in the case are all at Hatfield, and are mostly published in extenso by 
Haynes.) Hales himself was the scapegoat, and was in the Fleet prison for 
six months ; but in all probability, as Dudley said, Cecil and his brother-in- 
law, Bacon, had a great share in drawing up the book. Cecil was probably 
too powerful and useful to touch ; but Bacon was reprimanded, and Lord John 
Grey of Pyrgo, an old friend of Cecil's, was kept under arrest until his death, 
a few months later. 2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



154 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

Queen, and had an understanding with the Pope ; that 
the Catholic religion would be restored in England if the 
marriage were brought about, and much more to the 
same effect. 1 

The reason for this new move on the part of Dudley 
is not very far to seek. The defection of Conde and the 
collapse of the Protestants in France had been seized 
upon by Cardinal Lorraine and the dominant Catholics 
to force Catharine de Medici into a renewal of the nego- 
tiations for a league with Philip to extirpate Protestantism. 
Already the meeting had been arranged between Catharine 
and her daughter, the Queen of Spain, at Bayonne, which 
was to cement the close alliance. Catholicism was every- 
where in the ascendant, and the clouds appeared to be 
gathering over England ; for there was no combination 
so threatening for her as this. Hitherto Cecil had always 
counted upon the jealousy between France and Spain 
to prevent the domination of England by either power; 
but with the French Protestants prostrate and a close 
union between a Guisan France and Catholic Spain, all 
safeguards would disappear, and Mary Stuart would be 
able to count upon the support of the whole Catholic 
world, in which case the position of Elizabeth and the 
Anglican Church was, indeed, a critical one. 

As we have seen, Dudley cared nothing for all this, 
even if he was able to appreciate its gravity. If he could 
only force or cajole the Queen to marry him, the religion 
of England might be anything his supporters chose. He 
knew well that Cecil, with his broad and moderate views, 

1 Philip's reply, partly in his own hand, to his Ambassador's reports of 
Dudley's offers is characteristic : "I am pleased to see what Lord Robert 
says, and will tell you my will on the point. I am much dissatisfied with 
Cecil, as he is such a heretic ; and if you give such encouragement to Robert 
as will enable him to put his foot on Cecil and turn him out of office, I shall 
be very glad. But you must do it with such tact and delicacy, that if it 
fails, none shall know that you had a hand in it " (Spanish State Papers, 
Elizabeth, vol. i.). 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 155 

would try to conjure away the danger and disarm 
Catholic Spain, whilst safeguarding religion, by again 
bringing forward the Archduke with some sort of com- 
pact founded on the Lutheran compromise in Germany. 
But Spain and the Catholics, though they might have 
accepted such a solution, were not enthusiastic about it ; 
and Dudley, by going the whole length and promising 
Spain everything, thought to outbid Cecil and spoil the 
Archduke's chance, whilst diverting Spanish support from 
Mary Stuart to himself. 

In the autumn of 1563 the Duke of Wurtemburg, at 
the prompting of the English agent, had approached the 
Emperor to propose a renewal of the Archduke's negotia- 
tion. Ferdinand was cool : nominally the first monarch 
in Christendom, and a son of the proud House of Austria, 
he did not relish being taken up and dropped again as 
often as suited English politics, and he demanded all sorts 
of assurances before he would act. The Duke of Wur- 
temburg secretly sent an agent to see Cecil early in 1564 
without the Emperor's knowledge, and satisfied himself 
that Elizabeth was neither a Calvinist nor a Zwinglian, 
and would accept the confession of Augsburg. This was 
satisfactory ; but before anything more could be done, 
Ferdinand died (July 1564). When he conveyed the news 
to Cecil, Mundt, the English agent, proposed that he 
should be allowed to reopen the question of marriage 
with the new Emperor Maximilian, through the Duke of 
Wurtemburg. "He" (Mundt) "knows," he says, "that 
the Queen is so modest and virtuous that she will not do 
anything that shall seem like seeking a husband. But as 
the matter is most vital to the whole Christian world, he 
thinks that Cecil should not be restrained by any narrow 
and untimely modesty ; for he, holding the administration 
of the kingdom, ought to strive to preserve the tranquillity 
thereof by insuring a perpetual succession." 



156 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

Cecil and Mundt understood each other thoroughly ; 
but the Secretary's answer was intended for the eyes of 
others, and was cautious. "With regard to her Majesty's 
inclinations on the subject of her marriage, he can with 
certainty say nothing ; than that he perceives that she 
would rather marry a foreign than a native prince, and 
that the more distinguished the suitor is by birth, power, 
and personal attractions, the better hope he will have of 
success. Moreover, he cannot deny that the nobleman 
who, with them, excites considerable expectation, to wit 
Lord Robert, is worthy to become the husband of the 
Queen. The fact of his being her Majesty's subject, 
however, will prove a serious objection to him in her 
estimation. Nevertheless, his virtues and his excellent 
and heroic gifts of mind and body have so endeared him 
to the Queen, that she could not regard her own brother 
with greater affection. From which they who do not 
know the Queen intimately, conjecture that he will be 
her future husband. He, however, sees and understands 
that she merely takes delight in his virtues and rare 
qualities, and that nothing is more discussed in their 
conversation than that which is most consistent with 
virtue, and furthest removed from all unworthy senti- 
ments." It is not surprising that Cecil has endorsed the 
draft of this letter, " written to Mr. Mundt by the Queen's 
command." 

Mundt worked hard, but there were many obstacles 
in the way. Wurtemburg was in no hurry. The mourn- 
ing for the late Emperor, and the plague which raged in 
Germany, delayed matters for months. Once in the inter- 
val Cecil wrote to ask Mundt whether it was true that 
the Archduke's neck was awry. Mundt could not deny 
the impeachment, but softened it like a courtier. " Alex- 
ander the Great had his neck bent towards the left side ; 
would that our man may be his imitator in magnanimity 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 157 

and bravery. His body is elegant and middle size, more 
well grown and robust than the Spanish Prince." 1 

In the autumn Elizabeth sent an envoy to condole 
with the new Emperor on the death of his father, and 
simultaneously lost no opportunity of drawing closer to 
Spain, She coquetted with Guzman, ostentatiously in 
the face of the French Ambassador. She spoke senti- 
mentally of old times, when her brother-in-law Philip 
was in England. She was curious to know whether 
Don Carlos was grown, and manly ; and then apparently 
to force the Ambassador's hand, she sighed that every 
one disdained her, and that she heard Don Carlos was 
to marry the Queen of Scots. Guzman earnestly said 
that the Prince had been ill, and that such a thing was 
quite out of the question ; which was perfectly true. 
The Queen's real object then came out. "Why," she 
said, "the gossips in London were saying that the Am- 
bassador had been sent by the King of Spain to offer his 
son Don Carlos to me ! " All this rather undignified 
courting of Spain succeeded very soon in arousing the 
jealousy of France, as it was intended to do. 

De Foix, the French Ambassador, had kept Catharine 
de Medici well informed of affairs in England. Catharine 
was already getting alarmed at being bound hand and 
foot to the Guises, the Catholics, and Philip. The plan 
of marrying Mary Stuart to Don Carlos, or his cousin, 
the Archduke, and the rallying of Leicester to Spain 
and the Catholics, threatened to dwarf the influence of 
France, and make Spain irresistible. So the Queen- 
mother began to hint to Sir Thomas Smith, the Ambas- 
sador, that a marriage would be desirable between her 
son Charles IX., aged fifteen, and Queen Elizabeth, aged 
thirty-one. Some such suggestion had been made by 
Conde to Smith during the negotiations which preceded 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. 



158 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

the evacuation of Havre, but it had not been regarded seri- 
ously. It was probably no more serious now, but it was 
the trump card of both Queens, and it served its purpose. 

In the meanwhile the plot of Leicester and the 
Catholics against Cecil went on. The English Catholics 
came to Guzman, and represented to him that it would 
be better not to come to any arrangement with the 
Government about the commercial question, in order 
that public discontent in England might ripen and an 
overturn of the present regime be made the easier. But 
the Flemings were suffering even more than the English 
from the interruption of trade, and Guzman had strict 
orders to obtain a settlement of the dispute. So he told 
the Catholics that the Queen had been obliged to hold her 
hand, and refrain from punishing Cecil and Bacon, until 
she had come to an understanding with Philip, and with 
the English Catholics, through him. She would cling to 
Cecil and his gang, said Guzman, so long as she thought 
she had anything to fear from Spain. " All people think 
that the only remedy for the religious trouble is to get 
these people turned out of power, as they are the mainstay 
of the heretics, Lord Robert having the Catholics all on 
his side." 1 Dudley was flattered and encouraged with 
messages and promises from Philip, and laboured in- 
cessantly to get rid of Cecil, even for a short time. 

In order, apparently, to forward Dudley's chances of 
success as a suitor for the hand of Mary Stuart, for 
which at this time Elizabeth pretended to be anxious, 
she created him Earl of Leicester and Baron Denbeigh, 
on Michaelmas day 1564. De Foix, the French Ambas- 
sador, intimated two days previously his intention of being 
present at the splendid festivities which accompanied 
the ceremony. This was a good opportunity for Cecil 
to arouse suspicion of the new Earl, and distrust of 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 159 

the French. On the 28th September, accordingly, the 
Secretary called upon Guzman, and telling him that the 
French Ambassador would be present at the feast, hinted 
that Dudley was very friendly with the French ; to which 
the Spaniard replied, that he had always understood that 
such was the case, and that Dudley's father was known 
to be much attached to them. Then " Cecil told me that 
the Queen had commanded him to visit the Emperor 
with Throgmorton, and although he had done all in his 
power to excuse himself from the journey, he had not 
succeeded. I understand that the artfulness of his 
rivals has procured this commission for him, in order, 
in the meantime, to put some one else in his place, 
which certainly would be a good thing. His wife has 
petitioned the Queen to let her husband stay at home, 
as he is weak and delicate. They tell me that this has 
made the business doubtful, and I do not know for 
certain what will be done ; nor indeed is anything sure 
here from one hour to another, except the hatching of 
falsehoods, which always goes on." Needless to say, 
Cecil had his way and did not go. 

Before many days had passed Leicester sent to 
Guzman disclaiming any particular friendship with the 
French, "and said, after his own Queen, there was no 
prince in the world whom he was so greatly obliged 
to serve as your Majesty, whose servant he had been, 
and to whom he owed his life and all he had." De Foix, 
he said, had only been present at his feast, because he 
brought him the Order of St. Michael from the King 
of France, which he (Leicester) did not wish to accept. 
Guzman was rather tart about the business, and re- 
minded Leicester's friend (Spinola) that on the same 
day that the Queen had invited him (Guzman) to supper, 
De Foix had dined with her ; and when Spinola hinted 
that Philip might send Leicester the Golden Fleece, 



160 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

Guzman was quite scandalised at the idea of conferring 
the order on any one not a " publicly professed Catholic." 
Altogether it is clear that the Queen's and Cecil's clever 
management was already setting the French and Spanish 
by the ears ; and when they could do that and make 
them rivals for England's favour, she was safe. 

The next day Guzman was entertained at dinner by 
Leicester, the Earl of Warwick, Cecil, and others being 
present ; and the Secretary in the course of conversa- 
tion assured the Spaniard that he was taking vigorous 
measures to suppress the depredations on shipping, and 
to restore as much as possible of the merchandise stolen. 
Already, indeed, Cecil's diplomacy was righting matters. 
An active correspondence was going on about the Arch- 
duke's match ; the Queen assured Guzman that she had 
to conceal her real feelings about religion, but that 
God knew her heart ; and even Cecil tried to soften 
the asperity of the Catholics towards him. "Cecil," 
writes Guzman to his King, "tells these heretical 
bishops to look after their clergy, as the Queen is 
determined to reform them in their customs, and even 
in their dress, as the diversity that exists in everything 
cannot be tolerated. 1 He directs that they should be 

1 This refers to the order issued shortly before, called "Advertisements 
for the due order of the administration of the Holy Sacrament, and for the 
apparel of all persons ecclesiastical"; which commenced the bitter "vest- 
ments controversy." 

An interesting series of returns from the bishops, of this date (October 
1564) is at Hatfield. Their lordships had been directed to make reports of 
the persons of note in their respective dioceses, classified under the heads of 
"favourers of true religion," "adversaries of true religion," and "neutrals." 
To the reports the bishops append their recommendations for reform. The 
Bishop of Hereford says that all his canons residentiary "ar but dissemblers 
and rancke papists." He suggests that all those who will not conform should be 
expelled ; and most of his episcopal brethren advocate even stronger mea- 
sures than these. Another paper of this time (1564) addressed to Cecil, and 
printed by Strype in his " Life of Parker," shows the remarkable diversity of 
the service in English churches. As will be seen later, Cecil's attitude on the 
great vestment question divided him from many of his Protestant friends. 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 161 

careful how they treat those of the old faith : to avoid 
calumniating them or persecuting or harrying them." 
The result of this action was that in October 1564, 
Guzman could write : " I have advised previously that 
Cecil's favour had been wavering, but he knows how 
to please, and avoids saying things the Queen does not 
wish to hear ; and, above all, as I am told, can flatter 
her, so he has kept his place, and things are now in 
the same condition as formerly. Robert makes the best 
of it. The outward demonstrations are fair, but the 
inner feelings the same as before. I do not know how 
long they will last. They dissemble ; but Cecil has 
more wit than all of them. Their envy of him is very 
great." 1 

Sir James Melvil, a Scotsman brought up in France, 
was directed to go to London in the autumn of 
1564, to watch his mistress's interests. To him Eliza- 
beth again suggested a marriage between Dudley and 
" her good sister " ; and in reply to his remark that 
Mary thought that a conference between English and 
Scottish statesmen should discuss the question first, at 
which conference the Earl of Bedford and Lord Robert 
could represent England, Elizabeth told Melvil that 
he seemed to make a small account of Lord Robert. 
He should, she said, see him made a far greater Earl 
than Bedford before he left court. When Dudley was 
on his knees, shortly afterwards, receiving the investi- 
ture of his Earldom, the Queen tickled his neck, and 
asked Melvil what he thought of him. Melvil gave a 
courtly answer, whereupon the Queen retorted that he 
liked that "long lad" (Darnley) better. Melvil scoffed 
at such an idea, but his main object in coming to Eng- 
land was to intrigue for the " long lad's " permission to 
go to Scotland. A few days after this, Leicester took 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



1 62 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1564 

Melvil in his barge from Hampton Court to London, 
and on the way asked him what Mary thought of the 
marriage with him, which Randolph had proposed to 
her. Melvil answered coldly, as his mistress had in- 
structed him to do. " Then he began to purge himself 
of so proud a pretence as to marry so great a Queen, 
declaring he did not esteem himself worthy to wipe her 
shoes ; declaring that the invention of that proposition 
of marriage proceeded from Mr. Cecil, his secret enemy. 
For if I, says he, should have appeared desirous of that 
marriage, I should have offended both the Queens and 
lost their favour." x 

Melvil went back to Scotland with all manner of 
kind messages for his mistress ; and Cecil especially was 
gracious to him, placing a fine gold chain around his 
neck as he bade him farewell. But when Mary asked her 
envoy if he thought Elizabeth " meant truly towards her 
inwardly in her heart, as she appeared to do outwardly 
in her speech," he replied that in his judgment "there 
was neither plain dealing nor upright meaning ; but great 
dissimulation, emulation, envy, and fear lest her princely 
qualities should chase her from the kingdom, as having 
already hindered her marriage with the Archduke. It 
appeared likewise to me, by her offering unto her, with 
great apparent earnestness, my Lord of Leicester." 
Melvil says that Leicester's humble and artful letters 
to Mary, and the consequent kindness of the latter, 
aroused Elizabeth's fear that after all Mary might marry 
her favourite, and caused her to consent to Darnley's 
visit to Scotland. 2 " Which licence," he says, " was pro- 

1 Memoirs of Sir James Melvil of Hallhill. 

2 Bedford and Maitland subsequently met at Berwick to discuss the pro- 
posed match. It suited Mary to pretend some willingness to take Leicester 
in order to obtain leave for Darnley to come to Scotland. She was probably 
right in supposing that finally Elizabeth did not mean to allow Leicester to 
marry the Scottish Queen. Cecil was of the same opinion. Writing to his 



1564] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 163 

cured by means of Secretary Cecil, not that he was 
minded that any of the marriages should take effect, 
but with such shifts to hold the Queen (Mary) un- 
married as long as he could, persuading himself that 
Lord Darnley durst not proceed in the marriage with- 
out consent of the Queen of England first obtained." l 
Cecil's task was again an extremely difficult one. He had 
to keep up an appearance of leaning to the Catholics 
and the House of Austria, and encourage the idea of 
Elizabeth's marriage with the Archduke, in order to 
prevent the alliance of Mary Stuart with so powerful 
an interest ; he was obliged to keep his own restive 
Protestant friends in hand ; to counteract at every 
step the intrigues of Leicester against him, and to be 
ready at any moment to cause a diversion if Leicester's 
suit to the Queen looked too serious to be safe. 

The replies and recommendations of the bishops to 
the Council's circular, referred to in a previous note (page 
160), had caused much apprehension amongst Catholics ; 
and the Queen herself, as well as Cecil, assured Guzman 
that the bishops should do the Catholics no harm ; whilst, 
on the other hand, Cecil's Protestant friends were urging 
him to adopt strong measures to prevent the growth of 
the " Papists." Cecil's reply to one such recommenda- 
tion shows that he was just as ready to wound Leicester 
underhand as Leicester was him. " He replied that he 
was doing what he could, but he did not know who was 
at the Queen's ear to soften her so, and render her less 
zealous in this than she ought to be." 2 

Cecil's greatest difficulty, indeed, at this time, was from 

friend Smith at the end of December 1564 (Lansdowne MSS., 102), he says, 
" I see her Majesty very desyroose to have my L. of Leicester placed in this 
high degree to be the Scottish Queen's husband, but when it cometh to the 
conditions which are demanded I see her then remiss of her earnestness." 

1 Melvil's Memoirs. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, voL i. 



164 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

Leicester, who had now quite enlisted Sir Nicholas Throg- 
morton against his former friend. In order to enable 
Leicester with some decency to accept the Order of St. 
Michael, Throgmorton suggested that the Queen might ask 
for another Cross of the Order to be given to the Duke 
of Norfolk. When Cecil learned this, he was obliged to 
remonstrate with the Queen, and point out how undesir- 
able it was in the present state of affairs to place two of 
her most powerful nobles under an obligation to France. 
At a time when Cecil was straining every nerve to keep 
on good terms with the House of Austria, and conciliat- 
ing the Catholics, in order to checkmate Mary Stuart, 
Leicester had agents running backwards and forwards to 
France, in the hope of bringing forward in an official 
form the farcical offer of Charles IX.'s hand for the 
Queen, which offer he knew would come to nothing, 
whilst rendering abortive the Archduke's suit, upon 
which Cecil depended to so great an extent. 

The dexterity and cleverness of Cecil under these cir- 
cumstances is shown very markedly in the manner in 
which he changed in a very few months the opinion of 
the Spanish Ambassador about him, as soon as his policy 
rendered it necessary to gain his good opinion. " When 
I first arrived here," writes Guzman, January 2, 1565, " I 
imagined Secretary Cecil ... to be very different from 
what I have found him in your Majesty's affairs. He is 
well disposed towards them, truthful, lucid, modest, and 
just ; and although he is zealous in serving his Queen, 
which is one of his best traits, yet he is amenable to 
reason. He knows the French, and, like an English- 
man, is their enemy. He assured me on his oath . . . 
that the French have always made great efforts to attract 
to their country the Flanders trade {i.e. with England). 
With regard to his religion I say nothing, except that 
I wish he were a Catholic . . . but he is straightforward, 



1565] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 165 

and shows himself well affected towards your Majesty 
. . . for he alone it is who makes or mars business here." 1 

Having thus gained the good-will of the Spaniard, 
Cecil was soon able to persuade him that the Queen 
would never really marry Leicester, and the relations 
between the latter and the Spaniards became cooler. 
The Queen herself could not do enough to show her 
kindness to Guzman, and at joust, tournament, and ball, 
chatted with him in preference to the French Ambas- 
sador. By January 1565, Leicester, seeing that Cecil's 
diplomacy had gained the good-will of Spain, and that 
the Catholics were turning to the side of the Archduke, 
unblushingly veered round to the French interest. 

Guzman was obliged then to write that he was not at 
all satisfied with him. He wished, he said, to please every- 
body ; but was getting very friendly with the French, who 
were making much of him. But there was more even than 
this. The Queen and Cecil were trying their best to please 
the Catholics. The Queen openly and rudely rebuked 
Dean Nowell at his sermon on Ash Wednesday for attack- 
ing Catholic practices ; whilst Cecil w T as pushing the Vest- 
ments Order to the very verge of safety. Some of the 
bishops invited him to a conference, and remonstrated 
with him on the severity of the new regulations, which 
they openly stigmatised as papistical. He told them 
sternly that the Queen's order must be obeyed, or worse 
would befall them. The churchmen of the Geneva 
school railed and resisted, as far as they might, 2 what 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Humphrey and Sampson, both eminent divines and friends of Cecil, 
amongst others, stood out. The former, after much hesitation, was forced into 
obedience ; but the latter was dismissed from his deanery of Christ Church 
(Strype's " Annals" ). The students and masters of Cecil's own College of St. 
John gave him as Chancellor much trouble by refusing to wear their sur- 
plices and hoods. After much correspondence and remonstrance with them, 
the Chancellor became really angry, and the students assumed a humbler 
attitude. 



1 66 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

they called the Secretary's backsliding ; whilst Leicester, 
ever willing to change sides, if he could only checkmate 
Cecil, vigorously took the part of the Puritans, and did his 
best to hamper the execution of the Vestments Order, 
and to prevent the use of the cross on the altars. 1 

In February 1565, De Foix, the French Ambassador, 
shot the bolt that had long been forging. He saw 
Elizabeth in her presence-chamber, and, after much 
exaggerated compliment, read a letter of Catharine de 
Medici, saying she would be the happiest of mothers if 
her dearly beloved sister Queen Elizabeth would marry 
her son, and become a daughter to her. " She would find 
in the young King," she said, " both bodily and mentally, 
that which would please her." This was very sweet 
incense to Elizabeth, and she sentimentally deplored 
that she was not ten years younger. De Foix flattered 
her, and tranquillised her fears that she would be 
neglected or abandoned, and the Queen agreed with him 
to keep the matter secret for the present, and promised 
him a speedy reply. 2 As usual, Cecil drew up for the 
Queen's guidance a judicial examination of the advan- 
tages and disadvantages which might be expected from 
the marriage. He is careful in this lucid document not 
to commit himself to an individual opinion, 3 but the 
formidable list of objections far outweigh the advan- 
tages ; and when the Queen the next day repeated Cecil's 
arguments as her own, De Foix lost patience, hinted that 
his mistress had been deceived, and would withdraw the 
offer. 4 Elizabeth petted the ruffled diplomatist into a 
good humour again, and said she would send Cecil to 
talk the matter over with him. 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Dipkhes de De Foix, Bibliotheque Nationale. 

3 Foreign State Papers. 

4 Depiches de De Foix, Bibliotheque Nationale. 



1565] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 167 

Leicester had been bribed heavily by the French, and 
pretended to be strongly in favour of the match, which 
he knew would never take place, but might choke off the 
Archduke. But with Cecil it was very different. He had 
no objection to the French suit being talked about : that 
might make Spain and the Austrians more tractable ; but 
if it was allowed to go too far, the Emperor would take 
umbrage, and the Spaniards would balance matters by 
marrying Mary Stuart to some nominee of their own. 
When, consequently, Cecil saw De Foix, he was cool 
and argumentative, talked much of the difficulties of the 
match ; and on De Foix suggesting that such a union 
with France would preserve England from danger, he 
replied that England could defend herself, and had 
nothing to fear. By these tactics he avoided a direct 
negative, delayed and procrastinated, whilst his agents 
were busy in Germany smoothing the way for the Arch- 
duke. The French matter was a strict secret, but the 
Queen could not avoid giving some very broad hints 
about it to her friend Guzman. When he objected that 
the young King would be a very little husband for her, 
she angled dexterously but ineffectually to extort an 
offer of marriage from Don Carlos. Catharine de Medici 
was just as eager as Elizabeth 1 that the negotiations for 

1 Castelnau de la Mauvissiere was in London in May 1565 on his way to 
France from Scotland, and gives, in a letter to the Queen-mother, a most 
entertaining account of a conversation with Elizabeth at a night garden-party 
given by Leicester in his honour (the letter itself is in a private collection, but 
is printed in Cheruel's Marie Stuart et Catharine de Medici). She said how 
much more popular in England Frenchmen were than Spaniards ; praised the 
young King as "the greatest and most virtuous prince on earth." She asked 
Castelnau whether he would be vexed if she married the King. " Although 
she had nothing," she said, "worthy of so great a match : nothing but a little 
realm, her goodness and her chastity, on which point at least she could hold 
her own against any maiden in the world," and much more to the same effect. 
Castelnau says he never saw her look so pretty as she did. Catharine took the 
hint, and her industrious approaches to Smith were largely prompted by 
Elizabeth's coquetry to Castelnau on this occasion. 



1 68 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

the marriage with Charles IX. should not be dropped, 
for she was getting seriously afraid now of the Catholic 
combination into which she had been drawn, and indus- 
triously plied Smith with arguments in favour of the 
match. But Smith knew as well as Cecil himself that 
the whole matter was a feint, and dexterously avoided 
giving a favourable opinion. The Huguenots, however, 
were in deadly earnest about it, and Elizabeth and 
Catharine contrived to carry on the farce intermittently 
until eventually Charles IX. was betrothed to a daughter 
of the Emperor. 

Elizabeth was barely off with the old love than Adam 
Swetkowitz, Baron Mitterburg, came on behalf of the new. 
Ostensibly his mission was to return the late Emperor's 
insignia of the Garter, but really every step to be taken by 
him had been previously agreed upon through Throgmor- 
ton, Roger Le Strange, Baron Preyner, Mundt, and the 
Duke of Wurtemburg. The Spanish Ambassador, how- 
ever, had been studiously kept in the dark until shortly 
before Swetkowitz' s arrival, and was not in a hurry to 
pledge his master in the Archduke's favour, until he 
learned what arrangements had been made about reli- 
gion. On the contrary, he first approached Leicester, 
who was ill in consequence of an accident, and secretly 
urged him to press his suit before the Emperor's envoy 
appeared. Leicester was doubtful, but still not quite with- 
out hope. When Swetkowitz actually arrived, Leicester 
understood that the current was too powerful for him 
to oppose at first, and he became strongly and osten- 
tatiously in favour of the Austrian match. Swetkowitz 
first saw the Queen at the beginning of June. Her 
people, she said, were urging her to marry, and she 
was anxious to hear whether the King of Spain would 
favour the Archduke's suit for her hand. This Swet- 



1565] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 169 

kowitz could not tell her ; and he was referred to Cecil 
for further discussion of details. 

The conditions as laid down by Cecil * were prudent 
and moderate, but certainly not likely to commend 
themselves to the King of Spain, or even to the Em- 
peror ; for no power was to be given to the Consort, 
and the question of religion was jealously safeguarded. 
It is evident that the German thought that Leicester 
might be made instrumental in modifying these condi- 
tions. He writes to the Emperor, " Since the principal 
promoter of this transaction will be the illustrious Earl 
of Leicester, who is most devoted to the Archduke, and 
is loved by the Queen with a sincere and most chaste 
and honest love, I think your Majesty and the Archduke 
would aid the business by addressing fraternal letters to 
the Earl." 2 But Leicester's momentary adhesion to the 
policy of Cecil, Sussex, and Norfolk, was only for the 
purpose of deceiving the Secretary, and putting him off 
his guard. Whilst Cecil was proceeding in good faith 
with Swetkowitz, and the latter, a Lutheran, was just as 
earnest in his efforts to bring about the marriage, both 
the Queen and Leicester were playing a double game. 
Probably Elizabeth's marriage with her favourite was 
never nearer than at this juncture, when she was carrying 
on a serious negotiation with the Austrian, and was still 
making an appearance of dallying with De Foix. The 
circumstances, indeed, were for the moment all in favour 
of Leicester. Guzman was very cool about the Archduke 

1 Hatfield Papers, in extenso in Haynes. 

2 Cecil writes to Smith, 3rd June 1565 (Lansdowne MSS., 102). " My Lord 
of Lecester furdereth the Quene's Majesty with all good reasons to take one 
of these great princes, wherein surely perceaving his own course not sperable, 
he doth honourably and wisely. I see few noblemen devoted to France ; but 
I being Mancipum Regincz, and lackyng witt for to expend so great a matter, 
will follow with service where hir Majesty will goo before." This attitude is 
very characteristic of the writer. 



170 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

and the Lutheran envoy. The Queen was for ever 
trying to ascertain Philip's feeling about the Archduke, 
and at the same time dragging Leicester's name into her 
complicated conversational puzzles with the Spaniard. 
The latter on one occasion, disbelieving her sincerity 
about the Archduke, urged her to marry his friend 
Leicester, if she married a subject ; and only a day or 
two afterwards De Foix, who had by this time lost all 
hope of success for Charles IX., and wished to check- 
mate the Austrian, also went and pleaded Leicester's suit. 
The Earl, thus having the good word both of the 
Spanish and French Ambassadors, could afford to grow 
cool on the Austrian match. 1 Cecil, and Sussex parti- 
cularly, were scandalised and apprehensive at this new 
instance of Leicester's falseness, and laboured despe- 
rately to bring the Archduke to England to force the 
Queen's hand. But the Emperor was slow and doubt- 
ful about the religious conditions, and would not risk a 
loss of dignity. 

Matters thus dragged on month after month, whilst 
Leicester's chances looked brighter and brighter. Among 
the principal reasons for the rising hopes of Leicester 
were the events which had happened in Scotland during 
the previous few months. After much apparent hesita- 
tion, Elizabeth had in February granted to Darnley 

1 There is an enigmatical entry in Cecil's journal at this period, August 
1565, saying, " The Queene's Majestie seemed to be much offended with the 
Earle of Leicester, and so she wrote an obscure sentence in a book at 
Windsor." Strype, who has been followed by most other historians, thought 
that this referred to Leicester's opposition to the Archduke's suit. The 
real reason for the Queen's squabble with Leicester is given by Guzman 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.). August 27: "I wrote to your 
Majesty that the Queen was showing favour to one Heneage, who serves in 
her chamber. Lord Robert and he have had words, and as a consequence 
Robert spoke to the Queen about it. She was apparently much annoyed at 
the conversation. . . . Heneage at once left the court, and Robert did not 
see the Queen for three days, until she sent for him. They say now that 
Heneage will come back at the instance of Lord Robert, to avoid gossip." 



1565] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 171 

permission to join his father in Scotland for three 
months. A few weeks later a messenger came from 
Mary Stuart to the Spanish Ambassador in London, 
asking him whether he had any reply to send to her. 
Guzman was cautious, for he did not quite know the 
meaning of this ; but said he would speak to Maitland 
of Lethington, who was then on the way to London 
from the Border. Simultaneously with this, Lady Mar- 
garet Lennox also approached Guzman. " She told me 
the kind treatment her son had received at the hands of 
the Queen of Scots, and that the French Ambassador 
had sent to her secretly offering all his support for the 
marriage of her son. But she knows the French way of 
dealing . . . and repeats that she and her children have 
no other refuge but your Majesty (Philip), and begs me 
to address your Majesty in their favour, in case the 
Queen of Scotland should choose to negotiate about 
her son, Darnley, or in the event of the death of this 
Queen, that they may look to your Majesty." When 
Maitland arrived in London in April, he saw Guzman in 
secret, and after some fencing and feigned ignorance, 
offered his mistress's adhesion and submission to Spain. 
His mistress, he said, had waited for Philip's answer 
about Don Carlos for two years, but had now listened 
to some proposals for a marriage with Darnley, as 
neither Elizabeth nor her own subjects wished her to 
marry a foreigner. But before concluding the affair she 
wished to know if there was still any hope of her obtain- 
ing Don Carlos, in which case she still preferred that 
alliance. Guzman replied that, as Cardinal Lorraine 
had gone so far in his negotiations for the marriage with 
the Archduke Charles, Philip had abandoned all idea of 
opposing him by bringing forward his own son Carlos. 
Maitland assured him that the negotiations of Cardinal 
Lorraine were carried on against Mary's wish, and in 



172 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

the interests of France ; but Guzman knew now that 
the match with Don Carlos was hopeless, and said so. 
Maitland then spoke of the Darnley marriage, which, 
however, he feared would be very dangerous if Elizabeth 
took it badly. All would be well, he said, if the King of 
Spain would take Mary and Darnley under his protection ; 
but beyond bland banalities he could get nothing from 
Guzman. 1 

Darnley's demeanour in Scotland, and Mary's be- 
haviour towards him, together with the rising hopes 
of the Catholics there, had alarmed Murray and his 
friends ; and Elizabeth and her Council were now also 
alive to their danger. Cecil drew up one of his pro and 
contra reports with regard to the influence that such 
a marriage would have on England, 2 which was sub- 
mitted to the Council, and a unanimous condemnation 
of the match was adopted, and Throgmorton was sent 
in May post-haste to Scotland to dissuade Mary from 
taking a step so threatening to Elizabeth. Randolph's 
letters to Cecil at the time showed that the danger was 
a real one. Darnley, he says, is a furious fool, and 
Mary was infatuated with him. To the Pope, to Philip, 
to Cardinal de Granvelle, and to Guzman, Mary made 
no secret that her object was to unite the Catholics and 
claim the crown of England ; and Lady Margaret had 
from the first admitted that this was her aim in promot- 
ing the marriage of her son. When Elizabeth's eyes 
were opened to the imminence of the peril, she did what 
she could to stay the match. She, De Foix, and Throg- 
morton again pressed Leicester's marriage with Mary, 
Murray and his Protestant friends were encouraged to 
resist, Lady Margaret was placed under arrest in the 
Tower, Darnley was ordered to return to England, and 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Harl. MSS., 6990. 



1565] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 173 

the Queen promised Maitland that if his mistress would 
marry to her liking she would acknowledge her right of 
succession to the English crown. Meanwhile rumours 
came thickly from Scotland that Mary was already 
married, Philip promised all his support to Mary and 
Darnley if they would be his faithful servants, Murray 
and Lethington were thrust into the background, Rizzio 
was ever at Mary's side, and her foolish young English 
lover, hated and contemned for his arrogance, urged his 
infatuated bride to the religious intolerance that led to 
her ruin. 1 

The remonstrances of Throgmorton and Randolph, 
and the letters of the Queen and Cecil, were as power- 
less to move Mary now as was the threatening attitude 
of her nobles and people, for she had decided to depend 
entirely upon Philip, and to defy the Queen of Eng- 
land. In July, a few days before her marriage, she sent 
a special messenger to Guzman with letters for Philip. 
" De ggi n g f° r help an< 3 favour against the Queen of 
England, who has raised her subjects against her, to 
force her to forsake the Catholic religion." 2 Murray, 
Argyll, and the Hamiltons, she says, are in revolt, and 
if aid do not come from Spain she will be lost. 

When Mary's marriage was known for certain in 
London, the Archduke's suit was being laboriously dis- 
cussed ; but almost immediately afterwards, the renewed 
hopes of Leicester already referred to were noticed. It 
was felt that, now that Mary's marriage to a subject had 
taken place, one of Elizabeth's principal reasons for con- 
tracting an alliance with a son of the House of Austria dis- 
appeared, and a precedent had been set for her marriage 
with a man not belonging to a sovereign house. 

Swetkowitz therefore found that he had to encounter 

1 Randolph to Cecil, 3rd June. Harl. MSS., 4645. 

2 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



174 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

all manner of new conditions and demands from the 
Queen, which drove him to despair, and Guzman looked 
upon the Austrian's chance as a very poor one indeed. 
The Earl of Sussex and Cecil did their best to keep the 
matter afoot, whilst Leicester and Throgmorton openly 
proclaimed the hollowness of the whole negotiation. 
The old Earl of Arundel asked Guzman to dinner at 
Nonsuch early in August, apparently for the purpose 
of dissociating the English Catholics from the intrigues 
of both parties. He assured the Spaniard "that the men 
who surrounded the Queen did not wish her to marry. I 
said it was quite possible that some of them who thought 
they might get the prize for themselves might wish to 
hinder it ; but as for Secretary Cecil, I thought that his 
disagreement with Robert (Leicester) might well lead 
him to support the Archduke, if it were not for the 
question of religion. He (Arundel) told me not to 
believe that Cecil wanted the Queen to marry. He 
was ambitious and fond of ruling, and liked everything 
to pass through his hands, and if the Queen had a 
husband he would have to obey him." This view of 
the matter is not improbable ; but it is certain that 
Cecil, in any case, would resist to the last the marriage 
of the Queen with Leicester, under the patronage of 
either France or Spain. Such a marriage would have 
imperilled the results of his strenuous labour, and would 
have thrown England back into the slough from which 
the Queen and he had rescued it. 

When Leicester's star was seen to be in the ascend- 
ant, and the Archduke's chance waned, Cecil and his 
friends once more revived the suit of the King of 
Sweden. Splendid presents of sables and valuable 
plate came to the Queen and her court ; and Eric's 
romantic sister Cecilia, Margravine of Baden, again 
made ready for her much -desired visit to England, 



1 56s] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 175 

where she arrived early in September. At the water- 
gate of Durham House, where she lodged as the Queen's 
guest, Leicester's opponents were assembled in force to 
bid her welcome. The Countess of Sussex, Lady Bacon, 
Lady Cecil, and Cecil himself, all did honour to the 
Swedish King's sister, and Elizabeth was overwhelming 
in her cordiality for the first royal visitor she had enter- 
tained since her accession ; but the Princess wore out 
her welcome, and nothing came of her visit, though it 
served its purpose of again spoiling the appearance of 
Leicester's chances for a time. 

In the meanwhile, English money and men were 
supporting Murray and the Protestant Lords against 
Mary and Darnley, who were sending emissaries to the 
Pope, to Cardinal Lorraine, to Flanders, and to Philip, 
begging for help for the faith. When Elizabeth was re- 
monstrated with by Guzman, De Foix, and Mauvissiere, 
for helping rebels against their Queen, and for her harsh 
treatment of Lady Margaret, she replied that she had 
been shamefully deceived, but what she was doing was to 
endeavour to rescue Mary from the hands of her enemies, 
into which she had fallen, and she blamed Darnley 
and his Catholic friends more than Mary. The same 
excuse, said Guzman, which she used when she helped 
the French rebel Huguenots. At the- end of September 
a special meeting of the full Council was held, at which 
Cecil set forth the position with regard to Scotland, and 
the policy it was proposed to adopt. He pointed out 
the many reasons that existed for distrusting the French, 
who were very busy in Scottish affairs since Mary's 
marriage ; : and he told the Council that Mary had sent 

1 The action of the French representatives was extremely perplexing. On 
the one hand, they offered help to Elizabeth against Scotland, and urged 
Mary to make terms with Murray ; whilst on the other, they continued to 
intercede with Elizabeth for Lady Margaret and Mary, and conveyed the 
kindest messages to the Queen and Darnley. (See Randolph's letters.) 



176 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1565 

Darnley's secretary, Yaxley, 1 to beg aid of Philip, in 
addition to the letters sent through Guzman, and to the 
Pope. The interference of the Catholic powers in 
Scotland, he said, was a menace to England ; and it 
was decided that all preparations should be made for 
war upon the Border, as a measure of precaution, whilst 
an embassy was sent from England to endeavour to effect 
a reconciliation between Mary and the Protestant Lords. 
Before any decided steps could be taken, however, 
Murray retired into England, and arrived in London 
on the 22nd October. The Queen affected anger, and 
received him sternly in the presence of her Council 
and of the French Ambassador. Murray was dressed 
in deep mourning, and entered humbly. Kneeling, he 
addressed the Queen in Scots. She told him to speak 
in French, which he said he understood but imper- 
fectly. Notwithstanding this, she addressed to him a 
long harangue in French, for the edification of De 
Foix and Mauvissiere. " God preserve her," she said, 
" from helping rebels, especially against one whom she 
had regarded as a sister." She understood that their 
rising was in consequence of the Queen's marriage 
without the consent of Parliament, and of fear that 
their religious liberty would be infringed. But if she 
thought he, Murray, had planned anything against his 
sovereign, she would at once arrest and punish him. 
Murray justified himself, and threw himself upon her 
generosity, and Elizabeth replied that she would refer 
the whole matter to her Council. All this scene was 

1 Yaxley was sent back from Madrid with glowing promises and en- 
couragement from Philip to Mary and Darnley, and 20,000 crowns in money. 
The ship, however, in which he sailed from Flanders was wrecked, and 
Yaxley's lifeless body was washed up on the coast of Northumberland, with 
the money and despatches attached to it. The money, of course, never 
reached Mary, but formed the subject of a long squabble as to the respec- 
tive claims for it, of the Crown and the Earl of Northumberland. (Spanish 
State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.). 



1 566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 177 

for the purpose of putting herself right with France 
and Spain, and had been arranged on the previous 
night, when Murray was closeted with the Queen and 
Cecil. Cecil's own minute of the interview agrees closely 
with that of Guzman, just quoted. " Her Majesty asked 
him (Murray), in the presence of several persons, if he 
had ever undertaken anything against the person of his 
Queen. He denied it firmly and solemnly, saying, if it 
might be proved that he was either consenting or privy 
to any such intent, he besought her Majesty to cause 
his head to be struck off and sent to Scotland ... he 
testified before God that in all his counsels he had no 
other meaning but principally the honour of Almighty 
God, by conserving the state of His religion in Scotland. 
. . . And, to conclude, her Majesty spoke very roundly 
to him . . . that she would by her actions let it appear 
that she would not for the price of a world maintain any 
subject in disobedience against his prince." 1 

Cecil's characteristic policy is plainly seen in the 
Queen's treatment of Murray. He invariably endeavoured 
to keep Elizabeth legally in the right, and usually with 
success. But still Murray and the Scottish Protestants 
were now his main instruments for preventing the danger 
approaching England over the Scottish Border. The old 
national lines of division had grown fainter with the 
international league of Catholics facing a league of 
Protestants. Mary Stuart had definitely thrown in her 
lot with the former, in the hope of satisfying her am- 
bition ; 2 and the Scottish spectre was perhaps more 

1 State Papers, Scotland. 

2 Randolph's letter, 6th February 1566, gives particulars of Mary's ad- 
hesion to the League of Bayonne (Harl. MSS. 4645) ; but she does not 
appear actually to have signed the "bond" sent to her, as she was urged 
to do by the Bishop of Dunblane and other papal emissaries. There is not 
the slightest doubt, however, that she looked at this time to the Catholic 
league alone for help in her claims, and had decided to defy England and 
the Protestant party. 

M 



178 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

threatening to England at this moment than ever it 
had been before. The obvious course was that which 
Cecil followed — namely, to avoid an excuse for a national 
war or for foreign interference, and to encourage the 
Scottish Protestants to stand for the liberties they had 
won ; whilst assuming as indisputable that they were not 
in arms against their sovereign, but against their enemies 
and hers, who had interposed between the Queen and 
her loving subjects. 



CHAPTER VIII 

1566-1567 

Through the spring of 1566 the unfortunate Mary 
Stuart hurried to her destruction. Her dislike of her 
husband increased as Bothwell obtained more influence 
over her ; all prudence with regard to the overt favouring 
of Catholicism was cast aside, Murray and the " rebels" 
were sternly forbidden to return to Scotland, and the 
breach between Mary and " her good sister " grew wider 
every day. Nor is this to be wondered at. Randolph 
was busy in supporting the Protestants, and had been 
warned away from Mary's court. His letters to Cecil are 
full of dread foreboding of disaster to come, foreboding 
which most historians interpret as foreknowledge. Cecil's 
enemies have sought industriously to connect him with 
the sanguinary scenes which were shortly afterwards 
enacted in Scotland ; but they have always reasoned from 
the information contained in Randolph's letters to him, 
which in no case can be considered as evidence against 
him. That he was aware before Rizzio's murder that 
some sort of plot existed, 1 and that Murray and his 
friends were parties to it, is certain ; but that he himself 
had any share in its concoction, so far as the killing of 
Rizzio is concerned, has never been proved, and is most 
improbable. 2 As has been seen, his remedy for the 

1 Randolph to Cecil, 1st March ; and Randolph and Bedford to Cecil, 
6th March (Scottish State Papers). 

3 Randolph wrote to Leicester on the 13th February 1566, telling him of 

a plot to kill Rizzio, and probably the Queen, in order that Lennox and his 

son Darnley might seize the crown. He says he thinks jt better not to tell 

179 



i8o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

Scottish danger was not murder; for so far-seeing a man 
must have known that the killing of a favourite secre- 
tary could not divert Mary from the league of Catholic 
sovereigns, or alter her policy towards England whilst 
Huntly, Bothwell, and Athol were at her side, and papal 
emissaries in her close confidence. The killing of Rizzio 
satisfied Darnley's spite, and served Murray's and Argyll's 
personal ends, but was more likely to injure than benefit 
English national objects. 

What Cecil was personally doing during the first three 
months of 1566 was to strengthen the Protestant party 
in Scotland by money and promises of support, 1 whilst 
dividing the Catholic sovereigns upon whom Mary Stuart 
depended, by working desperately to bring the Arch- 
duke's match to a successful issue. With him now, in 
addition to the Earl of Sussex, were the Duke of Norfolk, 
the Earl of Arundel, and many others who usually leant 

Cecil, but to keep the secret between the writer and Leicester. On the 1st 
March, Randolph sent to Cecil copies of the two " Conventions," signed by 
the Earls — namely, that of Darnley, Morton, and Ruthven, to kill Rizzio ; and 
that of Murray, Argyll, Rothes, &c, to uphold Darnley in all his quarrels. 
Bedford, writing to Cecil on the 6th March, begged him earnestly to keep the 
whole matter secret, except from Leicester and the Queen. It will thus be 
seen that, far from being a promoter of the Darnley plot to kill Rizzio, Cecil 
did not know of it in time to stop its perpetration, if he had been inclined to 
do so, as the murder was committed on the 9th March. Against this, how- 
ever, must be placed, for what it is worth, Guzman's statement that Cecil 
had told Lady Margaret of Rizzio's murder as having taken place the day 
before it really occurred. 

1 From a statement of Guzman (28th January 1566) it would appear that 
Cecil, probably in union with Murray, had some idea of bringing Darnley round 
to the English interest. The Queen (Elizabeth), he says, had refused Ram- 
bouillet's suggestion that when he arrived in Scotland he might bring about a 
reconciliation between the two Queens. " Afterwards, however, Cecil went to 
his (Rambouillet's) lodgings, and told him that when the King of Scotland, 
bearing in mind that he had been an English subject, should write modestly to 
the Queen, saying that he was sorry for her anger, and greatly wished that it 
should disappear, he (Cecil) believed that everything would be settled, if at 
the same time the Queen of Scotland would send an Ambassador hither to 
treat of Lady Margaret's affairs" (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.). 



1566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 181 

to the Catholic side ; for Leicester was openly under 
French influence, always suspicious in the eyes of old- 
fashioned Englishmen, and now more than ever dis- 
trusted, for Cardinal Lorraine's agents were around 
Mary, and the Guisan Rambouillet was carrying the 
Order of St. Michael to Darnley, with loving messages to 
the Queen of Scots. 

On the last day of January 1566, Cecil and other 
Councillors went to Guzman's house to discuss the eternal 
question of the trade regulations and the suppression of 
piracy. When their conference was finished, Cecil took 
the Ambassador aside and urgently besought him to use 
his great influence with the Queen in favour of the Arch- 
duke's suit. The next day the request was pressed even 
more warmly by Sussex, who told Guzman that the 
majority of the Council had decided to address a joint 
note on the subject to the Queen. The Spaniard was 
not enthusiastic, for he did not wish to break entirely 
with Leicester in view of possibilities ; but on the 2nd 
February he broached the subject to the Queen and dis- 
cussed it at length. She was, as usual, diplomatic and 
shifty ; but whenever she was uncomfortably pressed, 
began to talk of her marriage with Leicester as a possi- 
bility ; and two days afterwards Guzman saw her walk- 
ing in the gallery at Whitehall with Leicester, who, she 
said, was just persuading her to marry him, "as she 
would do if he were a king's son." People thought, 
she continued, that it was Leicester's fault she was 
unmarried, and it had made him so unpopular that he 
would have to leave court. 

Almost daily Cecil or Sussex urged the Ambassador 
to favour the Archduke with the Queen, and were un- 
tiring in their attempts to induce the Archduke himself 
to come to England, in the hope of forcing the Queen's 
hand. As a means to the same end they continued to 



1 82 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

sow jealousy between the Catholic sovereigns. "Cecil 
tells me/' writes Guzman (2nd March), "that so great 
and constant are the attempts of the French to hinder 
this marriage, and to perturb the peace and friendship 
between your Majesty and this country, that they leave 
no stone unturned with that object. They are gaining 
over Lord Robert with gifts and favours, and are even 
doing the same with Throgmorton. It is true that Cecil 
is not friendly with them, but I think he tells me the 
truth with regard to it." 1 Again, when Sir Robert 
Melvil, who had come from Mary to pray Elizabeth 
to release Lady Margaret, was leaving London on his 
return, Cecil begged him to see Guzman before his 
departure, "as no person had done so much as he 
had to bring about concord between the two Queens, 
and he (Cecil) thought that if the differences could be 
referred to him (Guzman) for arbitration, they might 
easily be settled." Guzman thought so too, and wrote 
by Melvil to Mary to that effect, advising her to abandon 
arrogant pretensions, and accept such honourable terms 
as should satisfy Elizabeth ; 2 and, as a preliminary, he 
exhorted her to live on good terms with her husband. 
Before Melvil left Cecil, the latter told him that they had 
news of Rizzio's murder (this was written on the 18th 
March), and at the same time there came a messenger 
from Murray, saying that he had returned into Scotland 
(from Newcastle) on a letter of assurance from Darnley. 
The Earl of Murray had entered Edinburgh in triumph 
the day after the murder, and the Queen and Darnley 
had together started for Dunbar. 

Another opportunity for Cecil to breed dissensions 
between Spain and France came when the news arrived 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Only two days before this Guzman gave the same advice to Elizabeth. 
Both she and Cecil then assured him of their desire for such a settlement, which 
would have checked French designs in Scotland, and disarmed Spain. 



1566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 183 

of Pero Melendez's massacre of the French settlement 
in Florida, on the ground that the territory belonged 
to the King of Spain. The Queen professed herself to 
Guzman delighted at such good news; but was surprised 
that Florida was claimed by Spain, as she always thought 
that the Frenchman Ribault had discovered it ; indeed 
she had seriously thought of conquering it herself. Guz- 
man saw Cecil when he left the Queen (30th March), and 
the Secretary had nothing but reprobation for Coligny, 
who had sent out the French Florida expedition. " He 
said your Majesty should proclaim your rights with re- 
gard to Florida, that they might be known everywhere." 
Cecil, shortly before this, whilst discussing the question 
of Hawkins' voyages to Guinea and South America, said 
that he himself had been offered a share in the enter- 
prise, but that he did not care to have anything to do 
with such adventures. By all this it will be seen that 
Cecil's strenuous efforts to combat the Catholic league, 
which might lend to Mary Stuart a united support 
against England, took the traditional form of drawing 
the House of Austria to the side of England, and caus- 
ing jealousy between France and Spain. He knew that 
in the long-run national antipathies were stronger than 
religious affinities, and that the Catholic league, which 
had been ineffectual after the peace of Cateau Cambresis 
(1559), could with time and industry be broken again. 1 

1 We do not often hear of Lady Cecil's action in politics, but on this occa- 
sion she seems to have seconded her husband. Guzman writes (22nd April 
1566): "Cecil's wife tells me that the French Ambassador says that if the 
Archduke comes hither, he will cause discord in the country, as he will 
endeavour to uphold his religion, and will have many to follow him. She 
thinks the Queen will never marry Lord Robert, or, indeed, any one else, 
unless it be the Archduke, which is the match Cecil desires. Certainly, if 
any one has information on the matter, it is Cecil's wife, as she is clever and 
greatly influences him." 

A few days after the above was written, Guzman visited Cecil, who was 
ill, and mentioned how annoyed the French were when they saw the Arch- 
duke's suit prospering. " They then at once bring forward their own King to 



i8 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

But while Cecil approached Spain in order to divide 
her from France, he never forgot that Philip was the 
champion of the Catholics throughout the world, and 
kept his eyes on every movement which might forebode 
ill to England. His spies in Flanders were daily sending 
reports of the rumours there of King Philip's attitude 
towards the resistance of the Flemish nobles to the In- 
quisition ; indeed, as Guzman writes to his master (29th 
April) : " These people have intelligence from every- 
where, and are watching religious affairs closely ; but 
it is difficult to understand what they are about, and 
with whom they correspond, as Cecil does it all himself, 
and does not trust even his own secretary." 1 

Cecil might well be vigilant, for Mary Stuart's plots 
went on unceasingly. 2 Sir Robert Melvil arrived in 

embarrass the Queen. When this trick has hindered the negotiations, they 
take up with Leicester again, and think we do not see through them." " Yes," 
replied Cecil, "they are very full of fine words and promises, as usual, and 
they think when they have Lord Robert on their side their business is as good 
as done, but their great object is to embroil the Emperor with the King of 
Spain." (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i.) 

1 When news came of Brederode's " protest " in the Netherlands and the 
rising of the "beggars," Guzman tried hard to discover from Cecil whether 
any connection existed between the rebels and the English. He concluded 
that there was none, although the eastern counties' ports were full already of 
Flemish Protestant fugitives. The Queen was very emphatic in her con- 
demnation of the " beggars" at first. " Fine Christianity, she said, was this, 
which led subjects to defy their sovereign. It had begun in Germany and in 
France, and then extended to Scotland, and now to Flanders, and perhaps 
some day will happen here, as things are going now. Some rogues, she said, 
even wanted to make out that she knew something about the affairs in 
Flanders. Only let me get them into my hands, she exclaimed, and I will 
soon make them understand the interest I feel in all that concerns my brother, 
the King" {i.e. Philip). (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth.) 

2 See the letters of Cecil's spy, Ruxby (or Rooksby), in extenso in Haynes. 
This man had fled from England to Scotland for debt. He was known to 
Cecil, who, when he heard that he was dealing with Mary Stuart in Edinburgh, 
warned him. Ruxby then offered his services as a spy, and sent Cecil very 
compromising information about Mary's plans. Melvil discovered this, and 
Ruxby was seized by the Scots and put in prison, Killigrew's attempts, at 
the instance of Cecil, to convey him to England as an escaped recusant, being 
thus frustrated. (Hatfield Papers.) 



1566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 185 

London in May, again to discuss the question of the 
succession, and to ask Elizabeth to stand sponsor for 
Mary's expected child ; but, greatly to Elizabeth's indig- 
nation, he brought amiable letters from the Scottish 
Queen to the Earl of Northumberland and other Eng- 
lish Catholic nobles ; and whilst he was in London, an 
emissary from Mary Stuart to the Pope passed through 
on his return to Scotland with 20,000 crowns from the 
Pontiff, and a promise of 4000 crowns a month to pay a 
thousand soldiers for her (Mary's) defence. An envoy, 
too, of the rebel Shan O'Neil was at the same time lurking 
in Edinburgh, conferring with the Queen. 

All this was known to Cecil and Elizabeth, and drove 
them ever nearer to Spain and to the Archduke's match, 
Leicester himself, probably out of jealousy of Ormonde, 
who was vigorously flirting with the Queen, now openly 
siding with the Austrian. Even Throgmorton was re- 
conciled with Cecil by the Earls of Pembroke and 
Leicester, who promised the Secretary that Throgmorton 
should no longer thwart his policy. 

On the 23rd June, Sir James Melvil arrived with 
breakneck speed in London from Edinburgh, with news 
of the birth of Mary Stuart's heir. 1 It was late, but 
Sir Robert Melvil, the Ambassador, lost no time in 
conveying the tidings to Cecil, whose own entry of the 
event in the Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield runs thus : 
" 1566, 19 June, was borne James at Edinburgh inter 
horae 10 et 1 1 matutino." Cecil promised to keep the news 
secret from the court until Mary's own messenger could 
convey it officially to the Queen. Elizabeth was at Green- 
wich at the time, and when Cecil arrived she was " in 
great mirth dancing after supper." Cecil approached the 
Queen and whispered in her ear, and in a moment the 

1 He started from Edinburgh a few hours after James's birth, and reached 
London in four days (Melvil Memoirs). 



1 86 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

secret was out and all joy vanished. With a burst of envy, 
Elizabeth, almost in tears, told her ladies that the Queen of 
Scots was mother of a fair boy, whilst she, Elizabeth, was 
but a " barren stock." x When the Melvils saw her the next 
day she had recovered her composure, and promised to 
send Cecil to Scotland to be present at the christening, 
which embassy the Secretary with some difficulty evaded, 
" as there were so many suspicions on both sides." 2 

The Queen had suffered a serious illness early in 
the summer, which, with the anxiety of her position, 
had reduced her to a very low condition. It was decided 
that a progress should be undertaken for her health, 
in which the University of Oxford could be visited, 
and Cecil be specially honoured by a stay of the Queen 
at his house of Burghley. She left London in July, and 
underwent an ordeal at Oxford similar to that which she 
had experiened two years before at Cambridge. The 
vestments controversy was raging with great bitterness, 
clergymen were deprived and punished for contumacy, 
pulpit and press were silenced, and the Protestants 
resentful. Cecil was firm, but diplomatic, and the 
Queen indignant that her laws should be called into 
question. Under the circumstances it required great 
tact on both sides to avoid any untoward event during 
the Queen's visit to Oxford, where the Puritan party 
was very strong. Leicester and Cecil were both with 
the Queen, the former strongly favouring the Puritans, 
the latter taking his stand on the Queen's order for the 
discipline of the Church. On the Queen's reception, the 
Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Humphreys, one of the leaders of 
the anti-vestment party, approached to kiss the Queen's 

1 Melvil Memoirs. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. On the 20th July, Cecil writes 
to Lord Cobham, " I trust I shall not be troubled with the Scottish journey " 
(Hatfield Papers). 



1 566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 187 

hand. " Mr. Doctor/' said the Queen, smiling, " that 
loose gown becomes you mighty well ; I wonder your 
notions should be so narrow." Once, during the speech 
of the public orator, tender ground was touched, but the 
visit passed over without further embittering an already 
bitter controversy, and Leicester and Cecil, Puritan 
Knollys, Catholic Howard of Effingham, and many 
others received the honorary degree of Master of 
Arts. 1 

Cecil's own entries in his journal of the period are 
meagre enough : — 

" 1566. June. Fulsharst, a foole, was suborned to 
speak slanderously of me at Greenwich to the Queen's 
Majesty ; for which he was committed to Bridewell. 

"June 16. A discord inter Com. Sussex et Leicester 
at Greenwych, ther appeased by Her Majesty. 

"August 3. The Queen's Majesty was at Colly 
Weston, in Northamptonshire. 

"August 5. The Queen's Majesty at my house in 
Stamford. 

" August 31. The Queen in progress went from Wood- 
stock to Oxford." 

During the progress a disagreement between Cecil 
and Leicester took place, as well as that mentioned 
between the latter and Sussex. The communications 
between the Earl and the French were constant, and 
had caused much heart-burning. The existence of a 
strong and active party in the English court osten- 
tatiously leaning to the French side, at a time when 
Cecil's whole policy depended upon keeping the good- 
will of Spain, hampered him at every turn, and he 
wrote a letter to Sir Thomas Hoby, privately instructing 
him to give out in France that Leicester's influence over 
the Queen had decreased, and that the French need not 

1 Nichol's " Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." 



1 88 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

court him so much as they did. When the letter arrived, 
Hoby, the Ambassador, was dead, and it fell into other 
hands. Leicester heard of it, and taxed Cecil, who 
retorted angrily. 

Even in Cecil's own house the intrigues against his 
policy continued. He had sent Danett to the Emperor 
with the draft clauses of the proposed marriage treaty 
with the Archduke, and the news from Vienna seemed to 
confirm the best hopes of those who favoured the Austrian 
match. This, of course, did not suit Leicester. Vulcob, 
the nephew of the new French Ambassador, Bochetel de 
la Forest, went to Stamford to carry his uncle's excuses 
for not coming earlier to see the Queen. As he was enter- 
ing the presence-chamber at Burghley, Leicester stopped 
him, and began talking about the marriage. He hardly 
knew what to think, he said, but he was sure that if the 
Queen ever did marry, she would choose no one but 
himself for a husband. The Frenchman, no doubt, under- 
stood him. The Archduke's match was getting too pro- 
mising, and must be checked by the usual French move. 
So Vulcob took care when he saw the Queen to dwell 
mainly upon the attractive physical qualities of the young 
King Charles IX. Elizabeth was never tired of such a 
subject, and very soon the French Ambassador was 
warmly intriguing to bring forward his master's suit 
again, as a counterpoise to the Austrian hopes, but really 
in Leicester's interests, whilst presents and loving mes- 
sages came thick and fast from France to Leicester and 
Throgmorton. The Emperor's reply by Danett was, after 
all, not so encouraging as Cecil and Sussex had been 
led to expect, and Leicester's hopes rose higher than 
ever. During the Queen's progress he arranged with his 
friends a scheme which seemed as if it would stop the 
Archduke's chances for ever. Parliament was to meet in 
October, and the plan was to influence both Houses to 



1566] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 189 

press the Queen on the questions of the succession and 
her marriage, "so that by this means the Archduke's 
business may be upset . . . and then he (Leicester) may 
treat of his own affair at his leisure." It was clear that 
any attempt on the part of the Puritans and Leicester to 
force the Queen's hands with regard to the marriage 
whilst the delicate religious question was under discus- 
sion with the Emperor, would put an end to the negotia- 
tions, and Cecil and his friends strove their utmost to 
avoid such a result. They urged Guzman again to 
persuade the Queen to the match ; the Duke of Norfolk 
came purposely to court with the same object, and for 
once Cecil himself was willing, in appearance, to place 
the religious question in the background. "Cecil," 
writes Guzman, " desires this business so greatly, that he 
does not speak about the religious point ; but this may be 
deceit, as his wife is of a contrary opinion, and thinks that 
great trouble may be caused to the peace of the country 
through it. She has great influence with her husband, 
and no doubt discusses the matter with him ; but she 
appears a much more furious heretic than he is." Well 
might the Queen and Cecil be apparently more anxious 
to sink religious differences than Lady Cecil, for they pro- 
bably knew how imminent the danger was better than she. 
The Protestants in Flanders and Holland were in open 
revolt ; and slow Philip was collecting in Spain and Italy 
an overwhelming force by land and sea, with which he 
himself was to come as the avenger of his injured 
kingship, and crush the rising spirit of religious reform. 
If such an army as his swept over and desolated his 
Netherlands, whither next might it turn ? For six years 
Elizabeth had kept Spain from harming her, out of 
jealousy of France ; but France was now more than 
half Guisan, and in favour of Mary Stuart, and the 
Huguenots themselves had deserted England when she 



190 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1566 

was fighting their battle at Havre. No help, then, could 
be expected from France if Spain attacked Elizabeth for 
her "heresy"; and the Queen and her wise minister 
were fain to conciliate a foe they were not powerful 
enough to face in the open. Elizabeth went beyond the 
Spaniard himself in her violent denunciation of the in- 
surgents in the Netherlands. Their only aim, she said, 
was liberty against God and princes. They had neither 
reason, virtue, nor religion. She excused herself for 
having helped the French Huguenots, which she only 
did, she said, to recover Calais. If the Netherlands rebels 
came to her for help, she would show them how dearly 
she held the interests of her good brother King Philip ; 
"and she cursed subjects who did not recognise the 
mercy that God had shown them in sending them a 
prince so clement and humane as your Majesty." 1 Cecil 
was not quite so extravagant as this, but he missed 
no opportunity at so critical a juncture of drawing 
nearer to Spain, and was even more compliant than ever 
before on the vexed subject of the English right to trade 
in the Spanish Indies. "Cecil is well disposed in this 
matter," writes Guzman, " and I am not surprised that 
the others are not, as they are interested. Cecil assures me 
that he has always stood aloof from similar enterprises." 
In the meanwhile Leicester's persistent efforts to 
hamper Cecil's policy were bearing fruit. With great 
difficulty Cecil persuaded the House of Commons to 
vote the supplies before the question of the succession 
was dealt with, but a free fight on the floor of the House 
preceded the vote. The Queen was irritated beyond 
measure at the inopportune activity of the extreme party 
about the succession. Sussex, the Spanish Ambassador, 
and others of Catholic leanings, pointed out to her that 
if she married the Archduke there would be an end of 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 



i 5 66] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 191 

the trouble, and she need not then think of any successor 
other than her own children. At length a joint meeting 
of the two Houses adopted an address to the Queen, 
urging her to appoint a successor if she did not intend to 
marry. When the address was presented, her rage passed 
all decency. 1 The Duke of Norfolk, her own kinsman, and 
the first subject of the realm, was insulted with vulgar 
abuse, which well-nigh reduced him to tears. Leicester, 
Pembroke, Northampton, and Howard were railed at 
and scolded in turn ; only once did she soften somewhat 
towards Leicester. She had thought, she said, that if all 
the world had abandoned her, he would never do so. 
What do the devils want ? she asked Guzman. Oh ! 
your Majesty, replied the Ambassador, what they want 
is liberty, and if monarchs do not combine against it, it 
is easy to see how it will all end. She would send the 
ungrateful fellow Leicester away, she said, and the 
Archduke might now be without suspicion. Gradually, 
as she calmed, her diplomacy asserted itself, and cleverly, 
by alternations of threats and cajolery, she reduced 
Parliament to the required condition of invertebrate 
dependence upon her will. 2 

1 Although Cecil was a member of the Commons deputation, he was, of 
course, known to be against the measure, and escaped the Queen's vituperation. 
Cecil himself in his notes thus refers to the matter: "1566. October 17. 
Certen Lords, viz., Erie of Pembroke and Lecester, wer excluded the 
presence-chamber, for furdering the proposition of the succession to be 
declared in Parliament without the Queen's allowance." 

2 The Parliament was dissolved on 2nd January 1567. The principal 
measure adopted in it was that which gave Parliamentary confirmation to the 
consecration of the bishops and archbishops, in order to counteract the attacks 
promoted by Bonner against the Protestant consecration. The measure was 
principally urged by the bishops themselves, and in the Lords was carried to 
a great extent by their votes, there being twenty-eight bishops present, and 
thirty-two lay peers. The House of Commons was strongly Protestant, and 
was dissolved instead of being prorogued, as was expected. Although the 
measure referred to was passed, the Government refrained from proceeding 
further against the Catholic bishops who had refused the oath of supremacy. 
(See Strype's "Annals," &c.) 



1 92 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

All this, we may be sure, did not decrease the ill-feeling 
in the court, which for the next six months became a 
hotbed of intrigue. On the one side were Norfolk, 
Sussex, the Conservatives, and the Catholics, aided by 
Guzman, and cautiously supported by Cecil and Bacon ; 
whilst on the other, Leicester, Throgmorton, Pembroke, 
Knollys, and the Puritans, backed by the French Ambas- 
sador, ceaselessly endeavoured to check the Austrian- 
Spanish friendship, and if possible, above all, to ruin 
Sussex and prevent his embassy to the Emperor. That 
Leicester would stick at no inconsistency is seen by the 
curious fact that, whilst he was nominally heading the 
Puritan party, he, according to Melvil, was strenuously 
favouring the claims of the Queen of Scots to the suc- 
cession. He assured Elizabeth that this would be her 
best safeguard, or " Cecil would undo all," the reason 
for this being that Cecil was known to be in favour of 
Catharine Grey. 

On the 14th February 1567, Cecil sent word to 
his friend Guzman that he had just received secret 
advice of the murder of Darnley, of which he gave 
some hasty particulars. The intelligence could hardly 
have come as a surprise to the Spaniard, for a month 
previously he had informed Philip that some such act 
was contemplated. Within a few hours of the reception 
of the news in London, Leicester sent his brother, the 
Earl of Warwick, to Catharine Grey's husband, to offer 
him his services in the matter of the succession. Five 
days afterwards Sir James Melvil came with full par- 
ticulars of the foul deed at Kirk o' Field, and at once 
rumour was busy with the name of Mary Stuart as an 
accomplice in her husband's death. Elizabeth expressed 
sorrow and compassion on the day she heard the news, 
but rather doubtfully told Guzman " that she could not 
believe that the Queen of Scots could be to blame for 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 193 

so dreadful a thing, notwithstanding the murmurs of the 
people." When Guzman, however, pointed out to her 
how dangerous it would be for the opposite party (Catha- 
rine Grey's friends) to make capital out of the accusation, 
the Queen agreed that it would be wise to discounte- 
nance it, and to keep friendly with Mary Stuart, in 
order to prevent her from falling under French influ- 
ence again. 

In a letter from Cecil to Norris (20th February) he 
says : " The Queen sent yesterday my Lady Howard 
and my wife to Lady Lennox, in the Tower, to open this 
matter to her, who could not by any means be kept 
from such passions of mind as the horribleness of the 
fact did require. ... I hope her Majesty will show 
some favourable compassion of the said lady, whom 
any humane nature must needs pity. . . . The most sus- 
picion that I can hear is of Earl Bothwell, yet I would 
not be thought the author of any such report." x Lady 
Margaret, in her agony of grief, made no scruple at first 
in accusing her daughter-in-law of complicity in the 
murder ; but the bereaved mother left the Tower on 
the following day, doubtless warned of the unwisdom 
of saying what she thought. At least, when she saw 
Sir James Melvil she told him, " She did not believe 
that Mary had been a party to the death of her son, 
but she could not help complaining of her bad treat- 
ment of him." But whatever she might say, the spirits 
of the Catholic party in England sank to zero at the black 
cloud which hovered over their candidate. " Every day 
it becomes clearer that the Queen of Scotland must take 
some step to prove that she had no hand in the death 
of her husband if she is to prosper in her claims to the 
succession here," 2 wrote Guzman. Fortunately this book 

1 Scrinia Ceciliana. 

2 Spanish State Papers : Guzman to Philip, 1st March. 



194 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

is not the place in which to discuss the vexed question of 
Mary's complicity in Darnley's death, but her contempo- 
raries both in England and Scotland, as well as abroad, 
certainly thought her guilty. Cecil, writing to Sir Henry 
Norris in March, mentions the suspicions against Both- 
well, Balfour, &c, and says, "There are words added, 
which I am loth to report, that touch the Queen of Scots, 
which I hold best to be suppressed. Further, such per- 
sons anointed are not to be thought ill of without manifest 
proof." 1 And again, a few days afterwards, he says, "The 
Queen of Scots is not well spoken of." The entry of the 
event in Cecil's journal makes no mention of Mary. It 
runs thus : " Feb. 9. The L. Darnley, K. of Scots, was 
killed and murdered near Edenburgh ; " and on the fol- 
lowing day the news is amplified thus: "Feb. 10. Hora 
secunda post mediam noctem Hen. Rex Scotia interfectus 
fuity per Jac Co. Bothwell, Jac Ormeston de Ormeston, Hob 
Ormeston patrem dicti Jac Ormeston y Tho Hepbourn!' 

Morette, the Duke of Savoy's special envoy to Scot- 
land, had left Edinburgh the day after the murder, and 
on his way through London saw Guzman. The Queen 
of Scots had assured Morette that she would avenge her 
husband's death, and punish the murderers, but he made 
no secret of his belief that she had prior knowledge of 
the plan. Whilst Morette was dining with Guzman and 
the French Ambassador, a French messenger named 
Clerivault arrived at the house, bringing a letter from 
Mary to the Queen of England, claiming her pity, and 
similar letters for Catharine de Medici, the Archbishop 
of Glasgow, and others, 2 denouncing the crime. 3 Mary, 

1 Scrinia Ceciliana. 

2 These letters will be found in Labanoff, vol. ii. 

3 Catharine de Medici's attitude when she heard the news was charac- 
teristic. She thus wrote to Montmorenci : "Gossip: my son the King is 
sending you this courier to give you the news he has received from Scotland. 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 195 

indeed, lost no time in endeavouring to put herself right 
before the world. She offered rewards for the discovery 
of the murderers ; but when all fingers are pointed at 
Bothwell and his creatures, when public placards were 
posted in the capital accusing them and hinting at the 
Queen's complicity, Mary still kept the principals at her 
side, and made no move against their subaltern instru- 
ments. In vain, for a time, the bereaved father Lennox 
demanded vengeance ; in vain Elizabeth, by Killigrew, 
sent indignant letters to Mary ; in vain the Catholic 
Archbishop of Glasgow exhorted her to prove her own 
innocence by pursuing the offenders without mercy. 
Bothwell stood ever by her side, and his clansmen 
cowed the murmuring citizens who looked with aver- 
sion now upon their beautiful young Queen. At length, 
goaded to take some action by the danger of losing the 
Catholic support, upon which alone she had depended, 
she held the sham trial in the Edinburgh Tolbooth two 
months after the crime. Lennox refused to attend the 
travesty of justice, and Bothwell was unanimously ac- 
quitted. Murray had left the court before the murder, 
and fled to France when the result of the trial was 
known. Bothwell, loaded with favours, insolent with 
success, seemed to hold Scotland and the Queen in the 
hollow of his hand. The nobles were mostly bought 
or threatened into shameful compliance, and only the 
" preachers " and the townsfolk kept alive the growing 
horror of the Queen. No longer, even, did the humble 
peasant women hesitate, before Mary's face, to make 
their loyal blessing conditional upon her innocence. 1 

You see that the young fool (Darnley) has not been King very long. If he 
had been wiser he would have been alive still. It is a great piece of luck for 
the Queen, my daughter, to be rid of him." (MSS. Bibliotheque Nationale, 
Bethune.) 

1 Drury to Cecil, April 1567 (State Papers, Scotland). 



196 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

What was horrified doubt before became indignant 
reprobation when, only three months after Darnley's 
death, Mary married the hastily divorced Bothwell. 
Then came the hurried flight in disguise towards Dun- 
bar, the gathering of the nobles, the flight of Bothwell 
at Carbery Hill, and the conveyance of the disgraced 
Queen to Edinburgh. When nothing but vows of de- 
fiance and vengeance against Bothwell's enemies could 
be obtained from her, and it was clear that the unfor- 
tunate woman was deaf to reason and decency, came the 
crowning degradation of Lochleven, and Mary Stuart's 
sun set to rise no more. 

To a short life of turbulent pleasure succeeded twenty- 
years of plotting against the peace and independence of 
England and the cause of religious liberty. During that 
twenty years Cecil and his mistress were pitted against 
one of the cleverest women in Europe, supported by all 
that was discontented in England and Scotland, and all 
that was distinctively Catholic abroad. In the critical 
position caused by the rising of the Protestant Lords 
against Bothwell and the Queen, Cecil's view diverged 
somewhat from that of Elizabeth. The latter was natu- 
rally first concerned at the want of respect shown on all 
sides to an anointed sovereign, which subject was always 
a tender one with her ; whereas the Secretary was still 
anxious, before all else, to exclude French influence from 
Scotland. Writing to Norris in France (26th June), he 
conveys the news of Mary's restraint, and at the same 
time encloses letters from Scotland recalling Murray 
(then at Lyons), " the sending of which letters requireth 
great haste, whereof you must not make the Scottish 
Ambassador privy. 1 . . . The best part of the (Scots) 
nobility hath confederated themselves to follow, by way 
of justice, the condemnation of Bothwell and his com- 

1 Scrinia Ceciliana. 



1 567J THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 197 

plices in the murder of the King. Bothwell defends 
himself by the Queen's maintenance and the Hamiltons, 
so he hath some party, though it be not great. The 15th 
of this month he brought the Queen into the field with 
her power, which was so small, as he escaped himself 
without fighting and left the Queen in the field ; and she 
yielded herself to the Lords, flatly denying to grant justice 
against Bothwell, so as they have restrained her in Loch- 
leven until they come unto the end of their pursuit 
against Bothwell. . . . Murray's return into Scotland is 
much desired by them, and for the weal both of England 
and Scotland I wish he were here. For his manner of 
returning and safety, I pray require Mr. Stewart to have 
good care. . . . The French Ambassador, and Villeroy, 
who is there (in Scotland), pretend favour to the Lords, 
with great offers ; and it may be that they may do as 
much on the other side" (i.e. in France). 1 It was this 
last possibility which so much disturbed Cecil, and it was 
to avert it that Murray's return was so ardently desired, 
for he was known always to be opposed to the French 
influence in his country. In August, after Murray had 
returned to Scotland (visiting Elizabeth at Windsor on 
his way home at the end of July), Cecil wrote again to 
Norris : " You shall perceive by the Queen's letter to you 
herewith how earnestly she is bent in the favour of the 
Queen of Scots ; and truly since the beginning she hath 
been greatly offended with the Lords in this action; 2 yet 

1 Scrinia Ceciliana. 

2 Again, on the 3rd September, Cecil writes to Norris: "The Queen's 
Majesty, our sovereign, remaineth still offended with the Lords (of Scotland) 
for the Queen : the example moveth her." Later in the month (27th Sep- 
tember) a French envoy came through England on a mission to Scotland, 
and proposed to Elizabeth that joint action should be taken to secure Mary's 
liberation. The envoy was persuaded in London to refrain from continuing 
his journey, and we see that Cecil's feeling in favour of the Protestant party 
was gradually gaining ground in Elizabeth's counsels. He writes : " Surely 



198 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

no counsel can stay her Majesty from manifesting of her 
misliking of them ; so as, indeed, I think thereby the French 
may, and will, easily catch them, and make their present 
profit of them, to the damage of England. In this 
behalf her Majesty had no small misliking of that book 
which you sent me written in French, whose (author's) 
name yet I know not ; but, howsoever, I think him of 
great wit and acquaintance in the affairs of the world. 
It is not in my power to procure any reward, and 
therefore you must so use the matter as he neither be 
discouraged nor think unkindness in me." 1 

How much Cecil dreaded renewed French interfer- 
ence in Scotland is seen at this time by his ever-growing 
cordiality towards Spain. An acrimonious discussion was 
going on, both in London and in Paris, with regard to the 
restoration of Calais to England, which was now due by 
the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. Cecil and the Queen were 
both emphatic in their condemnation of the Protestant 
risings in the Spanish Netherlands, though French agents 
kept whispering to Guzman that help was being sent 
thither by England. The union between Cecil and the 
Spaniard was nevertheless closer than ever. The latter, 
in March, secretly told Cecil that the King of France was 
sending De Croc to Scotland, 2 and that there seemed to 
be some mystery brewing in that quarter. The Secretary 

if either the French King or the (English) Queen should appear to make any 
force against them of Scotland for the Queen (of Scots') cause, we find it 
credible that it were the next way to make an end of her j and for that cause 
her Majesty is loth to take that way." As an instance of the divergence of 
the Queen and Cecil during the summer, Guzman, detailing a private con- 
versation he had with the Queen in July, during which he warned her 
again against French interference in Scotland, writes : " Certain things 
passed in the conversation which she begged me not to communicate even to 
Cecils 

1 Scrinia Ceciliana. 

2 The object of the French was to retain their alliance with Scotland in any 
case, which, indeed, was their great safeguard against England and Spain. 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 199 

replied that he knew it ; they had a plot to steal the 
Prince of Scotland and take him to France, but that 
steps had been taken to prevent such a thing. Guzman 
thereupon urged the Queen of England to have the 
infant Prince brought to England, Mary having told 
Killigrew that she was willing that this should be 
done. 1 Indeed, at this time Cecil's perseverance had 
quite won Spanish sympathy, and had widened the 
rift in the Catholic league, as was necessary for Eng- 
land's safety, Guzman being if anything more eager 
than Cecil to checkmate the intrigues of the French in 
Scotland. 

The efforts on the other side were just as incessant to 
divide Spain from England, and more than once at this 
period caused temporary estrangement between them. 
In June a somewhat unexpected embassy came from the 
Emperor, with the object of asking Elizabeth for mone- 
tary aid against the Turk. The principal Ambassador, 
Stolberg, was a Protestant, and the Queen immediately 
jumped at the incorrect conclusion that he had come to 
arrange for the wedding of the Archduke. Before even 
he arrived in London, Stolberg had been persuaded that 
a great Catholic league had been formed, including his 
own sovereign the Emperor, with the object of crushing 
Elizabeth and rooting out Protestantism from Europe ; 
and when, at his formal reception at Richmond, 2 the 

De Croc was sent as Ambassador in 1566 for this especial purpose. Villeroy 
and Lignerolles were subsequently despatched respectively to conciliate Murray 
and Bothwell. When Murray assumed the Regency, the French were just as 
anxious to recognise him as they had been to welcome other regimes, and 
Charles IX. himself assured Murray of his continued friendship. (See letters 
and instructions in Cheruel.) 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. i. 

2 Cecil writes to Lord Cobham (27th May) : " Lady Clinton hath procured 
my wife to make a supper to-morrow, where a greater person will covertly be, 
as she is wont. The Queen hath made asseverations to persuade the Duke (of 
Norfolk) of her effectual dealing to marry, and to deal plainly in this embassy" 



200 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

Queen gave Stolberg an unfavourable reply to his re- 
quest for aid against the Turk, Cecil took Guzman, who 
accompanied him, aside and told him that the Queen 
and Council had learned the particulars of a league of 
the Catholic powers against Elizabeth and the Pro- 
testants, 1 in favour of the Queen of Scots. The better 
to effect the object, he said, the Emperor had made 
a disadvantageous truce with the Turk, whereat the 
English Council was much scandalised, and was deter- 
mined to make all necessary preparations, this being the 
reason why the Queen had answered the Ambassador so 
unfavourably. 2 Guzman was shocked that so sensible a 
person as Cecil should believe such nonsense. Probably 
Cecil knew as well as Guzman that the league was dead, 
so far as united action against England was concerned ; 
but such attempts as this, to serve French ends by 
arousing jealousy between Spain and England, were 
constant, and occasionally, as in this instance, aroused 
some distrust on one side or the other. 3 

As soon as the detention of Mary Stuart was known 

(Hatfield Papers). The object of the supper was to enable the Queen privately 
to meet the Emperor's Ambassadors before their public reception. She seems 
to have been much disappointed that they had nothing to say about the 
marriage, and as a result decided at last to send the Earl of Sussex to the 
Emperor. 

1 Guzman expressed his disbelief in any such intelligence having been 
received, whereupon Cecil showed him the paper. The document had reached 
Cecil in German from one of his agents, and is still in the Burghley Papers. 
Guzman pointed out to Cecil the undiplomatic form in which the articles 
of the alleged treaty were drawn up and their inherent improbability, which 
Cecil admitted. The particulars are now known to have been a fabrication, 
although the main object of the league was unquestionably to suppress 
Protestantism by extermination. 

2 The answer, which Guzman calls a very impertinent one, will be found in 
State Papers, Foreign, June 1567, and the original draft, in Cecil's hand, at 
Hatfield. 

3 Guzman writes (5th July ) : "Everything that can be done to arouse the 
suspicion of the Queen against your Majesty is being done by certain people, 
and I am trying all I can to banish such feeling and keep her in a good 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 201 

by the French Government an attempt was made to 
gain Murray to the side of France, in order to ob- 
tain possession of the infant Prince. Murray delayed 
pledging himself until he received the letters from the 
Lords and from Cecil, already referred to. He then 
started with all haste for Scotland, taking London on 
the way. Whilst in London at the end of July he saw 
Guzman, and told him as a secret that he had not even 
communicated to Elizabeth, that a letter existed which 
proved conclusively the guilt of his sister in the murder 
of her husband. 1 It was evident thus early that Murray, 
whilst expressing sympathy for his sister, and deprecating 
generally any derogation of the dignity of a sovereign, 
was determined that Mary Stuart should do no more 
harm to Protestantism or the relationship between Scot- 
land and England, if he could help it. " He said he 
would do his best to find some means by which she 
should remain Queen, but without sufficient liberty to do 
them any harm, or marry against the will of her Council 
and Parliament." 2 It is evident, from a letter from 

humour, without saying anything offensive of the King of France ... I think 
I have satisfied and tranquillised her ; although when they see your Majesty so 
strongly armed, suspicion is aroused, and not here alone." On the 2 1st July, 
he says, "With all the demonstrations of friendship and the friendly offers I 
make to the Queen from your Majesty, I find her rather anxious about the 
coming of the Duke of Alba to Flanders. " 

1 Murray very closely describes the contents of the "first" casket letter, 
of which so much has been written. The arguments of Mary's defenders, 
founded on the long delay in the production of the letters, therefore fall to 
the ground, as Murray had evidently seen a copy, or the originals, before the 
end of July. To those who accuse Murray himself of having caused the 
letters to be forged, it may be replied that, on the 12th July, De Croc, on his 
way from Scotland to France, mentioned to Guzman in London the existence 
of the letters. As Dalgleish, with the letters, was captured in Edinburgh 
on the 20th June, there was no time in the interval for Morton in Scotland 
and Murray in Lyons to have concocted an elaborate forgery such as this. 
Murray, at all events, must be acquitted, as De Croc, leaving Scotland at the 
end of June, had copies of the letters in his possession. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



202 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

Cecil to Norris, that Murray arranged with the former 
when in England to assume the Regency of Scotland on 
his arrival, although not without misgiving on the part of 
Elizabeth, even if she personally was a consenting party 
to the arrangement. Murray, writing a friendly letter to 
Cecil early in 1568 (Hatfield Papers), mentions that a 
report had reached him that Cecil had been told that 
he (Murray) was offended because Sir William in his first 
letter had not addressed him as Regent. Murray assures 
him that this was not the case, and begs him not to allow 
any such thought to disturb their friendship, " the amity 
of the two countries being the great object of both . . . 
although the Queen, your mistress, outwardly seems not 
altogether to allow the present state here, yet I doubt 
not but her Highness in heart liketh it well enough." 
Elizabeth was at the time divided between two feelings : 
that of indignation at any restraint being placed upon 
a sovereign by subjects, and the knowledge that the 
imprisonment of Mary meant the disablement of the 
only individual whom England had to fear. Cecil was 
fully alive to the latter fact, whilst the former was to 
him of quite secondary importance when compared with 
the national issues involved. 

When the news came of Mary's renunciation and the 
crowning of the infant James, the Lords wrote to Eliza- 
beth, saying that either she must protect them, or they 
must accept a French alliance ; and she was then obliged 
to prefer the interests of England to her reverence for 
the sacredness of a sovereign. Guzman thus tells the 
story : " The Queen told me she did not know what was 
best to be done, and asked my opinion, pointing out to 
me the inexpediency of showing favour to so bad an 
example, and, on the other hand, the danger to her of 
a new alliance of these people with the French ... I 
think I see more inclination on her part to aid them (the 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 203 

Scots) than the case at present demands, as I gave her 
many reasons for delay, whilst she still insisted that it was 
necessary to act at once." The next day (August 9) the 
tone of the Queen had somewhat changed. She would, 
she said, recall Throgmorton from Scotland, as it was 
beneath her dignity to have an Ambassador accredited 
to a sovereign in duress, 1 and she would refuse her pro- 
tection and aid to the Lords. The reason for this 
perhaps was that "the letter she writes to Throgmorton 
is very short. I have seen it, though I could not read it. 
It was in the hands of Lord Robert {i.e. Leicester), who 
dictated it, and he carried it to the Queen for signature 
in my presence, Cecil not being present." 2 Cecil, indeed, 
at this juncture had to proceed with great caution, and, 
as usual, by indirect and devious ways. Leicester, Pem- 
broke, and their friends had now (August), as Guzman 
says, "no rivals, as Secretary Cecil proceeds respectfully, 
and the rest who might support him are absent. He 
knows well, however, that he is more diligent than they, 
and so keeps his footing." 

1 How wavering Elizabeth's policy was at the time, according as Leicester 
or Cecil was near her, may clearly be seen. By Throgmorton's instructions 
of 30th June (State Papers, Scotland ; in extenso in Keith), it is evident that 
his mission was to blame both Mary and the Lords, making Elizabeth the 
arbiter between them, and to negotiate the restoration of Mary to liberty, but 
without political power. The Lords would not allow this, and Throgmorton 
failed. On the other hand, Melvil was sent back to Scotland shortly before 
Throgmorton, taking a message from Elizabeth to the Lords, in reply to their 
secret intimation that they intended to depose Mary, and a promise to the 
effect that she would aid them "in their honourable enterprise" (Melvil to 
Cecil, 1st July — State Papers, Scotland ; in extenso in Tytler). 

2 Guzman to Philip, August 9, 1567, Spanish State Papers. Guzman at 
this time had a conversation with a French envoy, Lignerolles, who was 
returning from Scotland. He told him that Leicester's henchman Throg- 
morton, on his embassy to Scotland, had acted earnestly and vigorously in 
favour of Mary. "Which," writes Guzman, "I quite believe, as he has 
always been attached to her. He is also a great friend of Lord Robert's, and 
an enemy of Cecil, whom the Queen does not consider to be in favour of the 
Queen of Scots, but a partisan of Catharine " (Grey). 



2o 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

In the meanwhile the Catholics in England were 
allowed almost perfect immunity, whilst, on the other 
hand, strong land and sea forces were mustered, as a 
counterbalance to the great army to be led into Flanders 
by Alba. The closest friendship existed between the 
Spaniards and Cecil, who was never tired of assuring 
Guzman that Hawkins' great expedition, then on the 
coast bound for Guinea, should under no circumstances 
do anything prejudicial in any of the territories of 
the King of Spain ; notwithstanding which, and the 
fact that Philip's Flemish fleet had just been effusively 
welcomed at Dover, John Hawkins himself, when the 
same fleet put into Plymouth, fired a few cannon shots 
at the flagship, and banged away until the Spanish flag 
was hauled down, to the unspeakable indignation of the 
Flemish admiral. 

Things were in this condition in the autumn of 1567, 
all Europe being on the alert watching the gathering of 
the storm over the Netherlands. So long as there was 
any danger of French interference in Scotland, or of the 
Catholic powers taking up the cause of Mary Stuart, 
Elizabeth, and more especially Cecil, drew closer to 
Spain and the Catholic party in England. But events 
moved quickly, and the whole aspect changed within 
a few weeks. Almost simultaneously, in September 
1567, came from different quarters two preliminary 
thunderclaps that announced the tempest. The advent 
of Alba in the Netherlands on his mission of vengeance 
had sent affrighted fugitives flying in swarms across 
the narrow seas to England ; but when, on the 9th Sep- 
tember, after the treacherous dinner-party in Brussels, 
the two highest heads in Flanders, Egmont and Horn, 
were struck at, and the bearers lodged in jail, all the 
world knew that the great struggle had begun between 
liberty and Protestantism on the one side, and tyranny 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 205 

and Catholicism on the other. Thanks mainly to Eliza- 
beth and Cecil, it was not to be fought out on British soil. 
Only a few weeks afterwards came the news of Condi's 
attempt to seize the young King of France and his 
mother, and to rescue them from the influence of Car- 
dinal Lorraine. The attempt failed, but soon all France 
was ablaze with civil war, for the Protestant worm at last 
had turned. Betrayed, as they had been before, and 
face to face now with foreign mercenaries hurried into 
France to suppress them, the convinced Huguenots 
decided to stand by their faith, and fight to the death 
for liberty to exercise it, let the "politicians" do what 
they might. The two events happening almost together, 
whilst Mary Stuart was in prison under a cloud, and 
the rebel Shan O'Neil in Ireland had finally fallen, at 
once relieved England of all danger from without, 
unless the Catholic party was irresistibly triumphant 
both in France and Flanders. The best way to pre- 
vent that was to support those who were in arms 
against it, and the policy of Elizabeth and Cecil was 
again cautiously changed accordingly. 

As soon as the Queen received from Norris news of 
Conde's rising, she sent for Bochetel, the French Ambas- 
sador, and ostentatiously condoled with him for the dis- 
respect shown to his sovereign. She rather overdid the 
pity, and suggested that she should arbitrate between the 
King and the Huguenots, but would take care that no 
help was given to the latter from England. Bochetel 
dryly thanked her for the assurance that she would not 
help rebels again, but said that his King was quite able to 
deal with his subjects without her assistance. Here, as 
in the case of Mary Stuart, Elizabeth's first feeling was 
indignation at any disrespect being shown to a sovereign ; 
but Cecil's letter to Norris at the time (November 3, 1567) 
shows that he and his friends looked at the matter from 



206 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1567 

another point of view, 1 which Elizabeth herself shortly 
afterwards adopted, as she had done in the case of the 
Queen of Scots. In the meanwhile the Council became 
daily more outspoken in favour of the Huguenots. 
Messages of encouragement went speeding across the 
Channel to Coligny, to Montgomerie, and the rest of 
the Huguenot leaders. Cecil himself took Archbishop 
Parker to task for his leniency to Bishop Thirlby and 
Dr. Boxall, who were in his custody for recusancy ; 
and at the end of November the official blindness as to 
people attending mass in London came to an end. The 
English people who had worshipped undisturbed in the 
Spanish Ambassador's chapel were suddenly arrested, 
and many of them sent to prison. 2 On the same day 
Cecil complained to Guzman that he had promoted the 
breaking of the law by persuading Englishmen to attend 
mass, and repeated other sinister reports about him. 
The Spaniard denied the charges, and warned Cecil that, 
although his present attitude might be prompted by 
patriotic motives, it was a dangerous one, "and that 
some people were casting the responsibility upon him 
(Cecil), for the purpose of making him unpopular." 

1 " Her Majesty much dislikes of the Prince of Conde and the French 
Lords. The (English) Council do all they can to cover the same. Her 
Majesty, being a Prince herself, is doubtful to give comfort to subjects. You 
(Norris), nevertheless, shall do well to comfort them as occasion shall serve " 
{Scrinia Ceciliana). The day before this was written, Guzman writes to 
Philip, speaking of the suspicion that exists that the Queen is helping the 
Huguenots, of which, however, he cannot find any confirmation : " But still 
I notice that when news comes favourable to the heretics, these Councillors 
are more pleased than otherwise, whilst they grieve if the heretics fail " 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth). 

2 Guzman's comment upon this is curious : "These heretics are so blind 
as to marvel why your Majesty does not allow full liberty to all in your 
dominions to enjoy their own opinions and schisms against the Catholic 
religion, and yet they themselves refuse to let people live freely in the ancient 
religion which for so many years they have followed without molestation." 



1567] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 207 

Cecil, apparently, was not afraid of this, for he had 
strained the loyalty of his friends almost to breaking 
limits lately by the severity exercised against the anti- 
vestment divines and his approaches to Spain, and 
doubtless welcomed the change in the political position 
which allowed him to enforce uniformity upon Catholics 
as well as upon his own co-religionists. There was a 
talk of expelling all Catholics from the Queen's house- 
hold, and Bacon, the Chancellor, made a speech in the 
Star Chamber directing the judges and officials to put 
into renewed force and press vigorously, the laws against 
the possession of books attacking the Protestant faith. 
"What most troubles the Catholics, however," writes 
Guzman, "is to see that Leicester has become much 
more confirmed in his heresy, and is followed by 
the Earl of Pembroke, who had been considered a 
Catholic. There is nobody now on the Catholic side in 
the Council." 

The hollow negotiations, too, for the Archduke's 
marriage, carried on by honest Sussex in Vienna, were 
politely shelved ; and the political pretence which Eliza- 
beth and Cecil had kept up for so long, of a leaning 
towards the Catholic side, could safely be discarded until 
the renewed liability of England to attack from without 
might again call for its resumption. So far the Queen 
and her minister had dissembled to good purpose, for 
the great struggle for the faith had been diverted from 
England to the Continent, and the monarchs of France 
and Spain were both busy in suppressing the religious 
revolts of their own subjects. 



CHAPTER IX 

1568-1569 

Norris in France, and Cecil's agents in Spain and 
Flanders, continued to send home alarming news of 
the intentions of Philip and the Guises against England. 
The stories were untrue, but coming from so many 
quarters at the same time, were evidently not invented 
by the senders. They were in fact set afloat by Philip, 
as a means of keeping England in a state of apprehen- 
sion, and so preventing her from sending overt aid to 
the Protestants in Flanders and France. To some ex- 
tent they were successful in frightening Elizabeth, evi- 
dently to Cecil's annoyance, for the Secretary at least 
had taken Philip's measure, and knew that his hands 
were full. In a letter to Lord Cobham, written in 
April 1568, Cecil gives expression to this feeling in the 
figurative language which he was in the habit of em- 
ploying. Cobham, as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, 
had forwarded a secret proposal of some Frenchmen in 
Calais to seize that citadel and deliver it to the Hugue- 
nots to be held for Elizabeth. The Queen was alarmed 
at the boldness of the plan, but promised that she would 
consider it if the King of France refused her offered 
mediation between him and the Huguenots. Cecil 
writes thereupon : " It grieveth me to hold and follow 
the plough where the owner of the ground forbears to 
cast in the seed in seasonable time, and I am all the 
more grieved that your Lordship is in like manner 

discouraged. ' Moremus sepe sed nihil promoremus.' But 

208 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 209 

besides the plough your Lordship follows, we are occu- 
pied with another, meaning to join both together for 
surety, but still I despair of seed." x 

In the meanwhile, though Elizabeth herself was still 
overshadowed by the traditional might of Spain, the 
English Catholics were feeling, by the increased severity 
exercised towards them, the changed political situation. 
The English minister, and in her stronger moments the 
English Queen, were speaking more firmly now than 
ever they had dared to do since Elizabeth's accession. 
For the first time the position was becoming defined. 
It was no longer France or Spain nationally that was 
the enemy of England : it was Catholic against Pro- 
testant the world over. Philip was as nervously anxious 
to avoid war as Elizabeth herself, and his need to do so 
much greater than hers ; but if Protestantism was allowed 
to become strong, then his great empire must crumble, 
and the basis of his system disappear. His own slow 
stolidity had been in a great measure the cause of his 
finding himself in so unfavourable a tactical position, 
for he had allowed the champions of the autonomous 
rights of his Flemish dominions — rights which at first he 
might easily have conciliated with his own sovereignty — 
to obtain for their cause the immense added impetus of 
religious reform. It was this fact which had changed 
the situation ; and it was accentuated in England by the 
activity of the Pope (Pius V.) in establishing English 
seminaries abroad, and by means of money and busy 
agents in England itself, raising the spirits of those who 
clung to the old faith. 2 

1 This second " plough " was probably an arrangement to subsidise 
Murray to send a privateer naval force to intercept some of Philip's vessels 
conveying a number of Flemish nobles to Spain, amongst others Count de 
Buren, the young son of the Prince of Orange. 

2 Dr. Allen had recently established the English seminary at Douai, and a 
Dr. Wilson was apprehended in March 1568 for collecting money from 

O 



210 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

The answer to the effervescence thus caused amongst 
the Catholics was the renewed harshness against them 
by the English ministers and the rising aggressiveness 
of the Protestants. Late in February 1568, Cecil sent 
word to Guzman, with whom he was still ostensibly 
on friendly terms, to say that the Queen had learnt 
casually that the English Ambassador in Madrid (Dr. 
Man) was not allowed to hold Protestant service in the 
embassy. She was surprised at this, and had sent to 
the Ambassador orders to demand the same rights as 
were accorded to Guzman in England ; if these were 
denied she would recall him. Cecil himself was more 
outspoken and indignant than usual, and much more 
so than the Queen. "They think, no doubt, that the 
present troubles in France and elsewhere," writes Guz- 
man, " give them a good opportunity of gaining ground, 
their own affairs being favourable ; so they have begun 
to look out more keenly, and to trouble the Catholics, 
summoning some and arresting others, and warning them 
to obey the present laws . . . they (the Council) soon 
change her (the Queen), and all their efforts are directed 
at making her shy of me." 1 Guzman's messenger to 
Madrid travelled more quickly than Cecil's, and before 
Dr. Man could demand his right to enjoy Protestant 
service, he was unceremoniously hustled out of Madrid, 
without obtaining audience of the King, the pretext 
being that he had in public conversation at his own 
table insulted the Catholic faith. 2 Though Philip took 

English Catholics for the seminary at Louvain. Cecil himself, in his essay 
on the " Execution of Justice," mentions the large number of papal emis- 
saries in England at this time. Thomas Heath, brother of the Archbishop, 
and Faithful Cummin, a Dominican monk, were both arrested during this 
spring for carrying on a Catholic propaganda under the guise of Puritan 
Nonconformists. (See Strype's Parker, &c). 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 He was said to have called the Pope a " canting little monk." Amongst 
those who testified against him was Gresham's agent Huggins, who afterwards 
became one of Cecil's spies in Spain, and betrayed both sides. 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 211 

this strong course, he was as anxious as ever to avoid 
an open quarrel with England about that or anything 
else, and sent all sorts of conciliatory messages to the 
Queen. Dr. Man, he said, had behaved himself so 
outrageously that his further stay in Spain was impos- 
sible ; but if another Ambassador were sent who would 
act as English Ambassadors always had done, he should 
be received with open arms. 

The news arrived in London at a bad time. A Portu- 
guese Ambassador had just come (May 1568) to complain 
— "brawling," as Cecil calls it — of the Hawkins expeditions 
to Guinea. He went to the audience with Guzman, and 
found the Queen in a towering rage about a scurrilous 
letter referring to her, written by the Cardinal Prince 
Dom Henrique. Cecil had obtained possession of the 
letter somehow, and produced it, saying that the pre- 
sumption of the Portuguese was insufferable and made 
them hated by all nations. The matter of the letter quite 
overshadowed the grievance about trade, as it no doubt 
was intended to do, and the Portuguese got no redress. 
On the contrary, Cecil called to him some Spanish resi- 
dents in London who accompanied the Ambassador to 
Whitehall, and warned them that they might not attend 
mass at the embassy. What ! not foreigners ? asked 
Antonio de Guaras. No, retorted Cecil, and turned his 
back upon them to rejoin the Queen. The next day when 
Cecil saw Guzman, he complained of Alba's severity in 
Flanders, and of some insulting reference to Elizabeth in 
the " Pontifical History" of Dr. Illescas, so that when Dr. 
Man's letter arrived immediately afterwards announcing 
his practical expulsion from Spain, everything was pre- 
pared for an explosion. The Queen received the news 
with some alarm as to what it might portend, and was 
at first inclined to be conciliatory ; but when Guzman 
visited Cecil in the Strand two or three days afterwards, 



212 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

he found the Secretary in a fit of anger unusual with 
him. Such treatment of an Ambassador, he said, was an 
unheard-of insult to his mistress, unless it was meant 
as a provocation to war. After storming for some 
time, he stopped for want of breath ; and it needed 
all Guzman's suavity to calm him. " I waited a little 
for him to recover from his rage, and then went 
up to him, laughing, and embraced him, saying that I 
was amused to see him fly into such a passion over what 
I had told him, because I knew that he understood 
differently. The affair, I said, might be made good or 
bad as the Queen liked to make it." 1 But Cecil was not 
easily appeased. He told Guzman that the Council re- 
garded him with suspicion, that Englishmen were treated 
harshly in Spain, and much more to the same effect, all 
of which was very surprising to the Spaniard, who was 
unused to such plain speaking from him. But in the 
ten years that Elizabeth had sat upon the throne, things 
had radically changed. Cecil could afford to speak boldly 
to Spain now; for whilst England had grown enormously 
in wealth, commerce, industry, and shipping, under a 
prudent, patriotic Government, both the great rivals she 
formerly feared were rent by the religious schism which 
the folly or ambition of their rulers had precipitated 
upon them, and England at any given moment could 
paralyse either of them for harm by smiling upon their 
Protestant subjects. 

Whilst Mary was in Lochleven Castle, Murray's 
enemies, the Hamiltons and the Catholics, were busy. 
Murray had tried his best by severity to reduce the 
country to something approaching order, and the tur- 
bulent chiefs who profited by anarchy resented it. The 
compromising papers which implicated the ruling powers 
in the late deeds of murder and violence were burnt, 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ii. 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 213 

though not those that implicated the Queen/ and the 
whole of the responsibility was cast upon the Queen and 
Bothwell. Religious uniformity was passed by Parlia- 
ment, and the exercise of Catholic worship abolished. 
All this violent action, too rapid and too partial to be 
readily assimilated by a country so profoundly divided 
as Scotland was, naturally caused reaction in favour of 
Mary, and when after one unsuccessful attempt she 
escaped from prison (2nd May), there were friends in 
plenty to flock to her banner. The day before her flight 
she had written the fervent prayer to Elizabeth, swearing 
unchanging fidelity to her if she would send her help 2 — 
help for which she had besought Catharine de Medici in 
vain ; for France wanted the alliance of Scotland, not 
that of Mary Stuart personally. The day after, when 
Mary, surrounded by Hamiltons, was free again, the 
possibilities were all changed. Mary Stuart turned in a 
few hours from the humble suppliant to the haughty 
sovereign. Her abdication was revoked, Murray's re- 
gency declared illegal, and all his acts annulled. Beton 
was sent off post-haste to London and Paris to demand 
for his mistress a thousand harquebussiers and a sum of 
money. Beton's instructions were to tell the English 
Government that if they would not send the help, he was 
to demand it from the French. Cecil writes to Norris, 3 
16th May, that under these circumstances the Queen had 
promised all that Mary demanded; but he was to keep his 
eye on Beton, and if he asked for French aid, Catharine 
was to be told the message he brought from Mary to 
London. Before Beton left London he went to see 
Guzman with a verbal message from Mary. Now that 
she was free, she said, she would show the world how 

1 Drury to Cecil, 28th November 1567 (State Papers, Scotland). 

- In Labanoff, vol. ii. Copy in Hatfield Papers, part i., and Haynes. 

3 Scnnia Ceciliana. 



2i 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

innocent she was, and begged for the advice and help of 
Guzman and his master. She was a firmer Catholic than 
ever, she averred ; nearly all the people and nobles of 
Scotland were on her side ; but she complained that she 
was in the field without proper garb or adornments, and 
begged Guzman to send a request to the Duke of Alba 
to seize her jewels and restore them to her, if Murray 
sent them to Flanders for sale. 1 

This was on the nth May. Two days afterwards the 
result of the battle of Langside once more cast the un- 
happy Mary Stuart into the chasm of irredeemable mis- 
fortune, and on the 16th she fled across the Solway a 
fugitive to England, to see her country no more in life. 
Such a step as this was tempting fate. It is true that 
Elizabeth had constantly professed sympathy for her in 
her captivity ; but whilst the English Queen's words 
were fair, the acts of her Government, dictated not by 
personal motives, such as the friends of Mary have 
absurdly tried to fix upon Cecil, but by high national 
policy, had been uniformly in favour of Murray and 
the Protestants. Mary's attitude, moreover, had from 
the first, and not unnaturally, been favourable to the 
French alliance, upon which for centuries Scotland had 
depended for the preservation of its independence ; and 
to place herself thus unconditionally at the mercy of 
the English, whose policy she had opposed and whose 
interests she sought to subvert, was little short of an act of 
madness. Mary had no excuse for trusting to a Quixotic 
generosity, of which Elizabeth had never given her the 
slightest indication beyond conventional fine words, such 
as would hardly deceive Mary. It was not so much that she 
overrated her generosity as she underrated her boldness. 

1 It is possible that these jewels may be those referred to in a memorandum 
at Hatfield, of the date 17th May, in Cecil's writing, as having been bought 
from one Felton. 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 215 

Drury in Berwick had kept Cecil informed almost 
from hour to hour of the course of events in Scotland ; l 
and a few hours only after Mary landed at Workington 
she wrote her famous and oft-quoted letter to the English 
Queen. In it she recites her sorrows, and begs Eliza- 
beth to aid her in her just quarrel ; but, above all, to send 
for her as soon as possible, " for I am in a pitiable con- 
dition, not only for a Queen but a gentlewoman." The 
position was a difficult one for the English Queen and 
Council. Guzman says they were much perplexed, " as 
the Queen has always shown good-will to the Queen of 
Scots, and the majority of the Council has been opposed 
to her, and favourable to the Regent and his govern- 
ment. If this Queen has her way, they will have to treat 
Mary as a sovereign, which will offend those who forced 
her to abdicate ; so that although these folks are glad 
enough to have her in their hands, they have many things 
to consider ... if she remain free, and able to com- 
municate with her friends, great suspicions will arise. 
In any case it is certain that the two women will not 
agree very long together." 3 

When Mary had arrived at Carlisle a few days after- 
wards, she sent Lord Herries to London with a letter 
for Cecil, which may be given in full. Mary's letters 
were always clever, unless she lost her temper, as she 
did sometimes, and here it will be seen that she appeals 
to positively the only feeling which it was probable 
would move Cecil to favour her, namely, her kinship 
to his mistress and her regal status. " Mester Ceciles," 
runs the letter, " L'dquit6, dont vous avvez le nom d'estre 
amateur, et la fidelle et sincere servitude que portez a 

1 Drury to Cecil, 15th May, describing Langside (Cotton MSS., Caligula, 
c. i.)., &c. 

2 Mary to Elizabeth {ibid.). 

3 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



216 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

la Royne, Madame ma bonne sceur, et par consequent 
a toutes celles qui sont de son sang, et en pareille 
dignite, me fayt en ma juste querele, par sur tous autres 
m'adresser a vous en ce temps de mon trouble pour 
etre avancee par votre bon conseille, que j'ai commande 
Lord Heris, presant porteur vous fayre entandre au 
long. . . . De Karlile ce xxviii Mey. Votre bien bonne 
amye Marie R." 1 With this letter Herries brought 
others for the Pope and Guzman. He demanded aid 
for his mistress on a pledge sent to her by Elizabeth 
through Throgmorton in the form of a ring, and when 
some hesitation was shown, he imprudently blurted out 
that if Elizabeth did not keep her word his mistress 
would appeal to France, Spain, the Emperor, and the 
Pope. " The Pope ! " exclaimed puritan Bedford, 
shocked at the idea. " Yes, the Pope," replied Herries, 
" or the Grand Turk, or the Sophi, or any one else who 
will help her." This sort of talk was sufficient to decide 
Mary's removal to Bolton as a measure of precaution. 

Before this took place, however, Lord Scrope and 
Sir Francis Knollys had been deputed by Elizabeth to 
visit and confer with Mary at Carlisle. Herries on that 
occasion had said that if the English would not help 
his Queen, she wished to go to France ; " whereupon," 
writes Knollys, we " answered that your Highness could 
in no wise lyke hyr sekyng aide in France, therbie to 
bring Frenchmen into Skotland ; " 1 and, continued the 
envoys, the Queen of England could not receive her 
personally until she was satisfied of her innocence in the 
murder of her husband. Mary was just as imprudent 
as Herries in her interview with the English envoys ; 
but what frightened Knollys most was the large number 
of her English sympathisers in the north of England. 
In his letter to Elizabeth he points out the danger of 

1 Cotton MSS., Caligula, c. i. 






1 5 68] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 217 

the situation, and suggests that Mary should have the 
choice of freely returning to Scotland, if she chose, or 
of remaining in England ; but not of going to France, 
as she evidently wished to do. " She was so agile and 
spirited," says Knollys, that she could only be kept a 
prisoner so near the Border by very rigorous means, 
such as " devices of towels and toyes at her chamber 
window " ; whereas to carry her farther inland might 
cause " serious sedition." 

Elizabeth and her Council decided to run the latter 
risk rather than that Mary should go to France to be a 
permanent thorn in the flesh of England, and the Queen 
of Scots' long imprisonment commenced. 1 Even in 
the first few weeks of her stay she was busy endeavour- 
ing to subvert English ends ; appointing Chatelherault, 
Argyll, and Huntly to the supreme government of the 
kingdom against Murray ; Chatelherault being strongly 
in the French interest, and daily clamouring through his 
brother in Paris for French armed support. All this 
was known to the Queen and Cecil ; and Mary's in- 
temperate letters of protest against her removal from 
Carlisle, and her constant threats to appeal to France 
and Spain if Elizabeth would not help her, 2 made it 

1 See Cecil's letters to Norris of this period, detailing the discussions 
which this gave rise to in the Council. Cecil's whole efforts were directed 
against preventing French troops being sent to Scotland at any cost. In 
Cecil's own memoranda (Harl. MSS., 4653), when Mary first entered Eng- 
land, this is the main point dwelt upon. No person was to see Mary without 
permission of the English guard, all the known accomplices of Darnley's 
murder were to be arrested, all interference of the French was to be pre- 
vented, and if it was decided to restore Mary, it was only to be on conditions 
which insured the exclusion of the French. The summing up of the docu- 
ment consists of a statement of the dangers that would ensue to England if 
Mary were to be allowed to return to France, or if, on the other hand, she 
remained in England. At this time Cecil was in favour of Mary's restora- 
tion under the strict tutelage of England. 

2 See letters 21st June, &c. , Hatfield Papers (in extenso in Haynes), and 
13th June and 5th July, Cotton MSS., Caligula, c. i. 



2i 8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

altogether inconsistent with prudence to allow the mis- 
guided woman her liberty. The investigation into 
Mary's guilt or innocence seems to have originated 
with Cecil. 1 Left to herself, Elizabeth, as we have seen, 
was mainly influenced by the personal feeling of rever- 
ence for a sovereign : Cecil could not oppose this, and 
as usual took an indirect means of reaching his end. 
When Mary complained to Knollys at Carlisle of the 
subjects who had dethroned her, he had told her that 
as it was lawful for subjects to depose mad sovereigns, 
it was also lawful for them to depose those who had lost 
their wits to the extent of conniving at murder. Mary 
wept at this, and Knollys softened the blow ; but Knollys 
had certainly seen Cecil's report, and took the line sug- 
gested by it. If Mary could be shown to have connived 
at Darnley's death — and Cecil must have known of the 
damning proofs against her when he proposed the nego- 
tiation — the regal immunity fell from her like a loosened 
garment, and Elizabeth's personal desire to consider the 
sacredness of the monarch before the interests of the 
country lost its principal resting point. 

In the meanwhile the state of civil war in Scotland 
continued, and news came daily of French armaments 
preparing to aid Mary's party. Cecil ceaselessly urged 
an armistice, and at last (1st September) was success- 
ful, though imprudent Herries continued to threaten 
that if Elizabeth did not restore the Queen of Scots to 
the throne in two months, she and her friends would 
appeal only to France for armed aid. Elizabeth clearly 
could not force Mary upon the Scottish people, and for 
her interference to be effective she must be recognised 
as a mediator, not by Mary alone, but also by Murray 
and his party. This was difficult ; for Murray knew that 

1 See Cecil's report and recommendations, Harl. MSS., 4653. 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 219 

if the final result was to restore Mary with any power 
at all, he and his party sooner or later were doomed. 
Thanks mainly to the efforts of Cecil, Murray at last gave 
way, and the commissions of Scotch and English Coun- 
cillors were sent to York, ostensibly to mediate between 
the Queen of Scots and her subjects. But Mary found 
herself no longer, as she had hoped to be, the accuser 
of Murray, but practically on her own trial for murder. 
By a remark in a letter from Cecil to Norris at the time, 
he seems again with some difficulty to have avoided being 
appointed a commissioner himself. 

Whilst the intricate and obscure proceedings in 
York 1 were progressing, Cecil's hands were full in 
London. Protestant zeal was fairly aflame now at Alba's 
proceedings in the Netherlands. All eastern England 
swarmed with Flemish fugitives, many of whom found 
their way back home again well armed with weapons 
bought in England, and even more with messages of 
indignant sympathy from English Protestants. Guzman 
protested to Cecil again and again, but could get no 
more than vague half promises, and once a proclama- 
tion, which the Spaniards described as a " compliment 
rather than a remedy." 

In September the mild and diplomatic Guzman 

1 A journal of the proceedings made by the English president, the Duke 
of Norfolk, is at Hatfield, part i. (No. 1200), and many letters on the subject in 
extcnso in Haynes. In November the sittings were transferred to Westminster. 
On the 30th October a Council was held at Hampton Court, at which the 
"casket letters " were considered, and it was decided that Mary's representa- 
tives, the Bishop of Ross and Lord Herries, should first have audience of Eliza- 
beth. They were to be so questioned as to " move them to confess their general 
authority to answer all charges." The representatives of the Lords, Maitland 
and MacGill, were then to be introduced and asked what answer they could 
give to Mary's accusations, and why, in face of the letters they produced, 
they refrained from charging the Queen openly with murder. It was decided 
in the Council to remove Mary from Bolton to Tutbury. (See Minutes in 
Cecil's hand, Hatfield Papers, part i. 1 203-1 205 ; in exicnso in Haynes.) 



220 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

was withdrawn, much to Elizabeth's apprehension, and 
Cecil's regret, and an Ambassador of very different 
calibre was sent. For many years the warlike party in 
Philip's councils, led by Alba, had been urging him to 
active hostility towards England, but the peace party 
of Ruy Gomez had prevented the advice from being 
adopted. Now that Alba was supreme in the Nether- 
lands, and reported that the Protestant revolt was mainly 
fed from England, Philip seems to have decided to alarm 
Elizabeth into neutrality by sending a rough-tongued 
representative. He had felt his ground first by his con- 
temptuous treatment of Dr. Man, and seeing that Eliza- 
beth had taken it quietly, he sent as his new Ambassador 
a turbulent bigoted Catalan, named Gerau de Spes, to 
endeavour by truculence to do what the suavity of Guz- 
man had failed to effect. Dutch, Huguenot, and English 
privateers were preying upon Spanish shipping, to an 
extent which well-nigh cut off communication by sea 
between Spain and northern Europe. Money and arms, 
unchecked, found their way from England to the brave 
"beggars" in Holland; and though Philip did not wish 
to fight England, it was vital for him to paralyse her for 
harm. Mary Stuart had written to Philip from Carlisle, 
begging him for help against Elizabeth, and the chance 
seemed to Philip a good one to disturb England for 
his own ends, without war. He accordingly wrote cau- 
tiously to Alba (15th September), saying that he was 
willing to help Mary, but desired Alba to report upon 
what might be done to that end, whilst sending reassur- 
ing promises to the Queen of Scots. 1 From the first 
hour that De Spes set foot in England, he went be- 
yond his instructions and conspired actively against the 
Government to which he was accredited. 

There was more even than this untoward change 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1 5 68] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 221 

to occupy the thoughts and hands of Elizabeth's first 
minister. The war had raged in France between the 
Huguenots and the Catholics from September 1567 till 
the clever management of Catharine had beguiled the 
Protestants to accept the hollow peace of Longjumeau 
(March 1568). Hans Casimir and his mercenary Ger- 
mans went home ; the Huguenots laid down their arms ; 
and then again the Catholic pulpits thundered forth 
that it was godly to break faith with heretics, and that 
the blood shed of unbelievers sent up sweet incense to 
heaven. Nearly 10,000 Huguenots were treacherously 
slain in three months, and no punishment could be 
obtained against the murderers. Conde and Coligny 
fled to the stronghold of La Rochelle, there to be joined 
by the Queen of Navarre with 4000 men-at-arms, and 
all that was strong and warlike on the side of the 
Huguenots. Elizabeth in the autumn was making a 
progress through the valley of the Thames when she 
heard that Cardinal Chatillon 1 had escaped from Tre- 
port, and had arrived in England and desired an audi- 
ence. Lord Cobham, Warden of the Cinque Ports, 
made much of him when he landed ; Gresham enter- 
tained him ; the French Ambassador, himself inclined 
to be a Huguenot, honoured him as if he were a prince ; 
and as soon as the Queen's answer was received, Cha- 
tillon hurried down to Newbury to prefer his request to 
the Queen. He looked little of a cardinal or a church- 
man, for he dressed in cape, hat, and sword, and his wife 
joined him, but that perhaps made him all the more 
welcome. Throgmorton voices the general idea in a 
letter to Cecil. " I think," he says, " with you, that it is 
a special favour of God to preserve this realm from 
calamities by their neighbours' troubles. ... If her 
Majesty suffer the Low Countries and France to be 

1 Odet de Coligny, brother of the Admiral of France. 



222 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

weeded of the members of the Church whereof Eng- 
land is also a portion, I see no other thing can happen 
but a more grievous accident to us than to those whom 
we have suffered to be destroyed." * 

But it is quite clear that neither the Queen nor Cecil 
intended to allow the Huguenots to be destroyed. The 
Cardinal was received with open arms, munitions were 
brought from the Tower in hot haste, and a strong fleet 
was fitted out to carry aid to Huguenots in Rochelle. 
The French Ambassador might be half a Huguenot, but 
his brother the Bishop of Rennes was not, and he came 
and protested strongly in the name of Catharine against 
Chatillon's reception in England. Cecil tells Norris 
in Paris that he got a very short answer. " I told him," 
says Cecil, " we had more cause to favour him (Chatillon) 
and all such, because the said Cardinal Lorraine was 
known to be an open enemy of our sovereign. So he 
departed with no small misliking, and I well contented 
to utter some round speeches." 2 But, prudent as usual, 
Cecil was a stickler for legality, and took care that 
appearances were kept up. The Cardinal, he insisted, 
was a faithful subject of his King ; it was the Guises who 
were the enemies. Norris is directed to tell Catharine 
that the fleet is "to protect our Burdeaux fleet from 
pyrats " ; and if any complaint is made about money 
and munitions of war being provided for Chatillon, he 
is to say that the Queen would never do anything against 
the French King, but if English merchants made bar- 
gains with the Huguenots, he (Cecil) knew of no way 
to stop it. He certainly made no attempt to do so ; for 
with a great civil war on hand it was clear that France 
could not resort to arms for the cause of Mary Stuart ; 
and whilst mediatory proceedings were dragging on in 

1 Hatfield State Papers, 18th September 1568. 

2 28th October {Scrinia Ceciliana). 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 223 

England, the Protestant cause in Scotland was being 
consolidated. 

The unhappy Queen of Scots herself, persuaded that 
no help could just now reach her from her French 
kinsmen, seems to have depended almost entirely upon 
the aid to be given by the King of Spain and Alba to 
the Scottish Catholics. No messenger came from her 
to London without beseeching secret letters in cipher 
to the Spanish Ambassador ; and whilst the trial dragged 
on, she left no stone unturned to arouse indignation 
against Murray and the English. They wished to kill 
her child, she said, and force the reformed faith upon 
her and Scotland. In an intercepted letter to one of 
the Hamiltons, which fell into Cecil's hands, 1 she says 
that Dumbarton, with Murray's consent, was to be seized 
by the English. Elizabeth had, she averred, promised 
to sustain Murray, to recognise his legitimacy, and raise 
him to the throne as her vassal ; both of these being 
accusations which were likely to move the Hamiltons to 
fury. But, above all, she accused Cecil of a deeper plot 
still. He had arranged, she said, to marry one of his 
daughters to the Earl of Hertford, father of Catharine 
Grey's young heir, and thus, by mutual support, Hert- 
ford's son and Murray might occupy respectively the 
English and Scottish thrones under Cecil's tutelage. 
11 So they will both be bent on my son's death." There 
was no truth in it ; but it was an excellent invention 
to arouse the ire of the Scottish Catholics. Before even 
this was written (December), Cecil knew how bitter was 
Mary's feeling against him. When Beton came to 
London from Mary in October, with secret messages 
for De Spes, suggesting her escape, "which will not 
be difficult, or even to raise a revolt against this Queen," 
Cecil guessed his real errand, and, says De Spes, " Cecil 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. 1237. 



224 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

is so much against the Queen of Scotland, and so jealous 
in the matter, that as soon as he saw Beton he asked him 
whether he had been with his complaints to the Spanish 
Ambassador, and whether he came to see me often ; to 
which Beton replied that he had no dealings whatever 
with me." 1 

But Cecil's spies were everywhere, and he knew that 
De Spes was working ceaselessly in Mary's interests to 
bring disaster upon England, in union with his chief, the 
Duke of Alba, in Flanders. The great difficulty in the 
way of the Spaniards was the extreme penury of the 
treasury. Spain was in the very depths of poverty, its 
commerce well-nigh killed by unwise fiscal arrangements 
and the depredations of the privateers, against whom 
De Spes inveighed to Cecil constantly, but in vain, though 
the Secretary was strongly against piracy on principle. 
Flanders desolated with war, Holland and Zeeland in re- 
volt, were no longer the milch-cows for the Spaniards that 
they had been, and Alba, with an unpaid and rebellious 
soldiery, was in despair of subduing Orange, much less 
of crushing England, unless large sums of money were 
forthcoming. Philip made a great effort in the autumn 
of 1568, and borrowed a large sum of money from the 
Genoese bankers to supply Alba with the sinews of war. 
The money was to be conveyed by sea to Flanders at 
the risk of the bankers. Three of the vessels duly arrived 
in Antwerp, after having been chased by Huguenot 
privateers ; but several others put into Southampton, 
Plymouth, and Falmouth, to escape from their pursuers. 
The representative in England of the bankers was the 
Genoese Benedict Spinola, who requested De Spes to 
ask the Queen to allow the money to be discharged and 
brought overland to Dover, where it could be tran- 
shipped under convoy for the Duke of Alba. De Spes 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1568] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 225 

saw the Queen on the 29th November, and she consented 
to this course being adopted. 

In the meanwhile the privateers, in crowds, were 
clustered outside the harbours where the rich treasure 
lay, and nearly every Spanish ship that entered the 
Channel fell into their hands. De Spes had not been 
sent by Philip to provoke war, but in the few months 
that he had been in England his violence, insolence, 
and bigotry had brought war nearer than ever it had 
been before. Norris in Paris had just been warned, 
and had sent the warning to Cecil, that a plot was 
formed to kill the Queen, and that the papal banker 
Ridolfi, De Spes, and the English Catholic nobility, 
headed by the Earl of Arundel, had agreed to place Mary 
Stuart on the English throne. De Spes was closeted 
day and night with Mary's agents. u The Bishop of 
Ross came at midnight to offer me the good-will of his 
mistress and many gentlemen of this country. . . . The 
Queen of Scotland told my servant to convey to me the 
following words : ' Tell the Ambassador that if his master 
will help me I shall be Queen of England in three months, 
and mass shall be said all over the country.' " l 

Conde's agents, too, were for ever telling the Queen 
and Cecil of the plans against England of the Guises and 
Alba, as soon as the Protestants in. France and Flanders 
had been subjugated ; and Knollys wrote almost despair- 
ingly from Bolton of Mary's haughty disbelief in Eliza- 
beth's power to harm her. 2 There need, therefore, be 
no surprise that the English Council began to question 
the wisdom of allowing the treasure that had fallen into 
their power to be used against the tranquillity and inde- 
pendence of their own country. When De Spes asked 
Cecil for the safe conducts for the money, he was put off 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ii. 

2 Hatfield Papers, part i. No. 1243. 

P 



226 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1568 

with vague evasions, whilst the main question was being 
discussed. After much pressing, Cecil gave the safe 
conducts, and sent orders to Plymouth and Falmouth 
(13th December, N.S.) that the shore authorities were to 
defend the treasure-ships, which were being threatened 
by pirates, even in port. " These orders are now being 
sent off," writes De Spes, " but in all things Cecil showed 
himself an enemy to the Catholic cause, and desirous 
on every opportunity of opposing the interests of your 
Majesty. . . . He has to be dealt with by prayers and 
gentle threats." J " The Council is sitting night and day 
about the Queen of Scotland's affairs. Cecil and the 
Chancellor (Bacon) would like to see her dead, as they 
have a King of their own choosing, one of Hertford's 
children." 1 

After deliberation, Cecil had sent for Bernard 
Spinola, and ascertained from him that the money was 
being conveyed at the bankers' risk, and could not 
legally be called King Philip's property. 2 This seems to 
have decided the question. The money on the cutter 
in Southampton harbour was discharged, on the pre- 
text of protecting it from pirates ; 3 and as soon as De 
Spes got the news, on the 20th December, he went to 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 Spinola had been concerned in John Hawkins' ventures, and it has 
usually been assumed that he had already received from his correspondents 
in Spain news of the attack on Hawkins' fleet at St. Juan de Ulloa two 
months before. It is asserted that the seizure of the treasure was urged upon 
Cecil as a reprisal for this. I am of opinion that such was not the case, as 
the seizure of the money was under consideration before it was possible for 
the affair of St. Juan de Ulloa to be known. 

3 The safe conduct for the money sent to the ports by De Spes was closely 
followed by contrary orders from the Council to Sir William Horsey at South- 
ampton, and Champernoun at Plymouth, and the treasure was landed in 
accordance therewith. On the 13th December, William Hawkins wrote to 
Cecil from Plymouth with rumours of the attack on John Hawkins at St. 
Juan de Ulloa, but the seizure must have been decided upon before Cecil 
received the letter. 



i 5 68] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 227 

the Queen in a violent rage to demand its return. He 
only saw Cecil, who said the money was safe, but hinted 
that it did not belong to the King. De Spes then gave 
the bad advice to Alba to retaliate by seizing all English 
property in the Netherlands, which was done, and Cecil 
was provided with a pretext which gave him what he 
always needed, a good legal position to justify his acts. 
The Queen had not hitherto plainly said that she would 
keep the money ; but as soon as she heard that Alba had 
seized English property, it gave her the required excuse 
for doing so. Her credit was as good as Philip's, she 
said, and she would borrow it herself. Not only 400,000 
crowns in gold, but every scrap of Spanish property 
in England was seized, enormously in excess of all Eng- 
lish property in Flanders. In vain De Spes hectored 
and stormed, in vain Alba alternately threatened and 
implored, in vain Philip made seizures of Englishmen 
and goods in Spain ; the Queen was in an unassailable 
position. Alba had openly declared the seizures of Eng- 
lish property first, and all Elizabeth had done was to 
adopt reprisals afterwards. But it crippled Alba and 
Philip almost to exhaustion, and well-nigh ruined Spanish 
commerce and killed Spanish credit. 

For years open and secret negotiations went on to 
obtain some restoration of the enormous amount of 
Spanish property seized. Cajolery, bribery, and appeals 
to English honour were resorted to without effect ; pri- 
vate negotiations were opened by the owners of the 
property to get partial restitution on any terms ; envoy 
after envoy was sent, and returned home empty-handed. 
The Queen refused to acknowledge Alba or his agents in 
any form, and Cecil was immovable in his determination 
that no arrangement should be made that did not bring 
into account all the confiscations and persecutions that 
had ever been suffered by English in Spain at the hands of 
the Inquisition, which he knew was impossible. In the 



228 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

meanwhile the property dwindled and was jobbed away, 
and little, if any, ever eventually reached its proper owners. 
Early in January the Queen refused to receive De 
Spes, and sent Cecil and the Lord Admiral, attended 
by a large train, and the aldermen of the city, to see 
him at his house. Cecil, as usual, was the spokesman. 
He was angry and severe : upbraided the Ambassador 
for his bad offices ; condemned the cruelty of the Duke 
of Alba, and his insolence in seizing English property ; 
and ended by placing De Spes and all his household 
under arrest, in the custody of Henry Knollys, Arthur 
Carew, and Sir Henry Knyvett. The reason of this was 
that a violent letter from De Spes to Alba had been inter- 
cepted by Cecil's orders. To make matters worse, the 
foolish Ambassador, whilst under arrest, wrote an inso- 
lent letter to Alba complaining of his treatment, and sent 
it open to the Council. In it he says that " Cecil is harsh 
and arrogant ; that he vapoured about religion, dragged 
up the matter of John Man and about Bishop Quadra's 
affairs, and, in short, did and said a thousand impertinent 
things. He thinks he is dealing with Englishmen, who 
all tremble before him. . . . The question of the money 
does not suit him. I beg your Excellency not to refrain 
on my account from doing everything that the interests 
and dignity of the King demand ; for whilst Cecil rules, 
I do not believe there will ever be lasting peace. It is a 
pity so excellent a Queen should give credit to so scan- 
dalous a person as this. God send a remedy ; for in this 
country, people great and small are discontented with the 
Government. . . . Cecil is having a proclamation drawn 
up, from which he leaves out what is most important, and 
misstates the case. He refused to return my packet, and 
is getting one Somers to decipher my letters. If he suc- 
ceeds I will pardon him." 1 The transmission of this 
insolent letter, open to the Council, to be sent to Alba, 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 229 

produced the effect that might have been expected. De 
Spes was asked to explain what he meant by such offensive 
expressions against the Government, and by some scur- 
rilous references employed in another intercepted letter 
towards the Queen. He tried to attenuate his insolence 
towards the Queen, and the Council as a whole, but not 
that towards Cecil personally. 

And so affairs drifted from bad to worse. Every 
letter from De Spes to Alba and the King was full of 
abuse of Cecil, and statements of the determination of 
the English Catholics to shake off his tyranny and raise 
Mary Stuart to the throne. The people are all discon- 
tented, he says, and the slightest show of countenance 
from Philip will enable Elizabeth and the detested Cecil 
to be overthrown. Philip did not know what to think 
of it, and sent to Alba orders to inquire independently 
whether De Spes' representations were true. If it is so 
easy, he says, he is willing to give the aid required, as 
after his duty to maintain the holy faith in his own 
dominions, it is incumbent upon him to re-establish it 
in England. " If you think the chance will be lost by 
again waiting to consult me, you may at once take the 
steps you consider advisable." x Alba soon undeceived 
the King. He had his hands full in the Netherlands ; 
he was almost without money ; rash and foolish De 
Spes, he knew, was not to be depended upon, and he 
told Philip plainly that he must temporise and make 
friends with Elizabeth, leaving vengeance until later. 
De Spes, he thought, was being deceived, perhaps be- 
trayed, by Ridolfi and the Catholics, and open war with 
England must be avoided at any cost. Cecil, indeed, 
had accurately gauged the situation, and knew far better 
than De Spes that Philip dared not fight, now that the 
Prince of Orange was holding Holland and Zeeland 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



230 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

against him. England's traditional alliance was not 
with the House of Spain, but with the possessor of the 
Netherlands, and in the same proportion as Spain lost 
control over the Low Countries, the need for a close 
union with her shifted. 

Late in February the Duke of Norfolk, and his father- 
in-law, the Earl of Arundel, to whom the changed situa- 
tion was not so clear as to Cecil, sent Ridolfi to De Spes 
with a cipher communication to tell him that the money 
and Spanish property should be returned. 1 "They had 
only consented to my detention and Cecil's other im- 
pertinences, because they were not yet strong enough 
to resist him. But they were gathering friends, and 
were letting the public know what was going on, in the 
hope and belief that they will be able to turn out the 
present accursed Government and raise up another 
Catholic one, bringing the Queen to consent thereto. 
They think your Excellency (Alba) will support them 
in this, and that the country will not lose the friendship 
of our King. They say they will return to the Catholic 
religion, and they think a better opportunity never ex- 
isted than now. Although Cecil thinks he has them all 
under his heel, he will find few or none of them stand 
by him. I have encouraged them. ... In the mean- 
while Cecil is bravely harrying the Catholics, imprisoning 
many, for nearly all the prisons are full. The Spaniards 
{i.e. from the arrested ships) are in Bridewell to the 
number of over 150, and a minister is sent to preach 
to them." This gives us a clue to the real origin of 
the plot against Cecil, which his domestic biographer 
absurdly ascribes to a noble member of the Council 
having seen upon his table a book attacking aristocracy. 2 

1 The seizure of Spanish property had greatly alarmed the English mer- 
chants and bankers, and was the pretext seized upon by Cecil's enemies to 
ruin him. ' Desiderata Ciiriosa. 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 231 

Rapin is nearer in guessing the cause of the conspiracy 
in ascribing it to Norfolk, Winchester, Pembroke, Leices- 
ter, Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Arundel, in 
favour of Mary Stuart's claim, at least to the succes- 
sion, in opposition to Cecil's candidate, Catharine Grey's 
son, Lord Beauchamp. Camden records that Throg- 
morton, Leicester's henchman, advocated the lodging 
of Cecil in the Tower first. " If he were once shut up, 
men would open their mouths to speak freely against 
him." * As will be seen, however, Cecil was more than 
a match for his jealous enemies, who were also the 
enemies of England ; and the Queen, to her honour, 
stood bravely up for her great minister. 2 The plan 
agreed upon was for Norfolk, a cat's-paw of Leicester, 
to denounce Cecil for his supposed intention of forcing 
the succession of Beauchamp, and provoking war with 
Spain by advocating the seizure of Philip's treasure ; 
but Leicester, too unstable, even, to keep the counsel 

1 Fuller's " Holy State." 

2 How moderate and cautious Cecil was in his triumph, after he had 
discovered and apprised the Queen of the plot to ruin him, and had barely 
escaped the dagger of the hired assassin who was to kill him, is seen in his 
subsequent demeanour towards the conspirators. Instead of trying to disgrace 
or punish them, he continued to work loyally with them. The real prime 
mover in the plot was Leicester, with whom outwardly Cecil was always 
friendly. Cecil, writing to a friend at the time, thus expresses himself: " I 
am in quietness of mind, as feeling the nearness and readiness of God's favour 
to assist me with His grace, to have a disposition to serve Him before the 
world ; and therein have I lately proved His mere goodness to preserve me 
from some clouds or mists, in the midst whereof I trust mine honest actions 
are proved to have been lightsome and clear. And to make this rule more 
proper, I find the Queen's Majesty, my gracious lady, without change of her 
old good meaning towards me, and so I trust by God's goodness to observe a 
continuance. I also am moved to believe that all my Lords, from the greatest 
to the meanest, think my actions honest and painful, and do profess inwardly 
to bear me as much good-will as ever they did." That this was the case, at 
least with one of the conspirators, is proved by the fact that Lord Pembroke, 
who died at the end of the year, left Cecil one of his executors, jointly with 
Leicester and Throgmorton. 



232 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

of his own plot, dropped a hint to the Queen, who 
warned Cecil, and the whole nefarious conspiracy was 
unveiled. The excuse given by Norfolk and Arundel to 
De Spes for their failure was that so many Councillors 
were interested in the plunder that they could not get 
them to move against Cecil. " For my part," says De 
Spes, " I believe that they have very little courage, and 
in the usual English way wish things to be so far ad- 
vanced that they can with but little trouble win your 
Majesty's rewards and favours." 

On the strength of their intentions against Cecil, 
Arundel, with his sons-in-law, Norfolk and Lumley, 
tried their hardest to get some money from De Spes, but 
without effect until the northern rebellion was in pre- 
paration. Their intermediary was a Florentine banker, 
whose brother-in-law, Cavalcanti, was one of Cecil's agents, 
and through him every step was known to the Secretary. 
Spies were everywhere. Whilst Cecil's most confiden- 
tial private secretary, Allington, carried all his secrets to 
De Spes for a consideration, 1 no visitor went to the 
Spanish Embassy whose name and business was not 
at once reported to Cecil, who, says De Spes, was sus- 
picious even of the birds of the air. Though Mary was 
in captivity, she contrived to write constant cipher letters 
through De Spes to the Pope, to Alba, and to Philip. 
The Bishop of Ross, her indefatigable but imprudent 
agent, took no step in Mary's cause without consultation 
with the Spaniard. She would, he said, have been re- 
leased already but for Cecil, her great enemy in the 
Council. 2 If he could be got rid of, all would be well. 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 Although in all her letters Mary designates Cecil as her enemy, she 
could, when not carried away by anger, perceive his good qualities. In 
February 1569 she was removed to Tutbury, and was extremely angry and 
alarmed at this. In conversation with Henry Knollys, who repeated the 
conversation to a correspondent of Cecil's (Hatfield Papers, part i. 1279), 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 233 

The Bishop of Ross went so far as to solicit another 
husband for Mary to be chosen by Philip, and offered 
her abject submission both for England and Scotland, 
in return for aid to the coming rising in her favour. 
It will be seen by this that a more dangerous and wide- 
spread plot even than that against Cecil was being planned 
by the Catholic nobility. 

At what period the first suggestion was made for a 
marriage between the Duke of Norfolk and Mary Stuart 
is not certain, but the Bishop of Ross afterwards deposed * 
that the Duke had sent his offer to the Queen before the 
meeting of the Commission of York (October 1568), of 
which he was president ; and as Lady Scrope, in whose 
husband's house, Bolton Castle, Mary was kept, was 
Norfolk's sister, it is probable that the plan was hatched 
during her stay at Bolton. From Murray's statement 2 
it appears that Norfolk had a private conference with 
him during the sitting of the Commission at York, when 
the Duke proposed to suppress the papers which in- 
criminated Mary, in order to save the scandal of a 
conviction. Murray placed the evidence before the 
English Commissioners, and agreed to abide by Eliza- 
beth's decision, and Norfolk at once wrote a private 
letter to Cecil conveying his strong impression of the 
Queen's guilt, but advocating the suppression of the 
evidence. Norfolk's conference with Murray, and pro- 
bably Cecil's knowledge of the marriage plan, appears 
to have been the reason for the removal of the Com- 



" she spared not to give forth that the Secretary was her enemy, and that 
she mistrusted by this removing he would cause her to be made away." But 
when her passion was over, she said that though the Secretary were not 
her friend, he was an expert, wise man, wishing it might be her luck to get 
the friendship of so wise a man. 

1 Hatfield Papers ; in extenso in Haynes. 

2 Denied afterwards by Norfolk, but confirmed by Melvil. (See State 
Trials, and Melvil's Memoirs). 



234 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

mission to London, and the employment of Norfolk else- 
where, as well as of the removal of Mary to Tutbury. 
When Norfolk returned to court, Elizabeth received 
him coldly, for the talk about his marriage with Mary 
was now public, and the Duke assured the Queen of the 
untruth of the rumours. After Murray, with real or pre- 
tended reluctance, had laid the whole of his evidence 
against Mary before the Commission, and the sittings had 
come to an end with the sole result of leaving the cloud 
over her head, Norfolk's plan for a time was shelved ; 1 
but the conspiracy of the nobles against Cecil in favour 
of Mary again revived the idea of the marriage ; and 
Guzman in June 1569 says that the new Lord Dacre had 
mentioned the matter to him, and professed his willing- 
ness to hold in readiness 15,000 men in the north, to 
rise in favour of Mary if he were assured of Philip's 
support. De Spes asserts that Cecil had proposed to 
marry his widowed sister-in-law, Lady Hoby, to the Duke, 
a proposal which the Duke had rejected with scorn, " as 
his eyes were fixed upon the Queen of Scots." 

By this time matters had so far advanced that a large 
sum of money (6000 crowns) was sent by Alba to the 
Catholic nobles, through Lumley and Arundel, as well 
as 10,000 to Mary, and the rising in the north was in 
principle decided upon ; but Alba, whilst ready to supply 
money secretly, strictly enjoined De Spes to turn a deaf 
ear to any suggestions for overt aid against the Queen's 
Government, 2 His great care for the moment was to 

1 The Bishop of Ross deposed afterwards that Norfolk was so much 
exasperated at Murray's having finally brought forward the whole of the 
evidence to convict Mary of murder, that he formed a plot for his assassi- 
nation. Melvil says, however, that before Murray returned to Scotland, 
Throgmorton had fully gained his acquiescence in the projected marriage, 
and had reconciled the Regent and the Duke. 

2 Alba was very angry with De Spes for the way in which he was compro- 
mising Spain. He wrote again to him in July, saying that he " was informed 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 235 

repair the effects of his mistake, and obtain some sort 
of restitution of the Spanish property seized in England. 
Agents were sent backwards and forwards, supple cosmo- 
politan Florentines mostly. Ridoln, Fiesco, the Caval- 
cantis, and several others tried by bribery and other means 
to induce Cecil to consent to an arrangement. It suited 
him to pretend a willingness to do so. Ridolfi dined 
and conferred with him more than once on the subject 
at Cecil House. De Spes was released from his captivity 
in Paget House (on the site of the present Essex Street, 
Strand), and allowed to take the Bishop of Winchester's 
house instead ; but on various pretexts, invented, as he 
says, by Cecil, the interminable negotiations about the 
restitution dragged on without much result, as Cecil 
evidently intended them to do. "We must have 
patience," De Spes writes to Alba, "but the affair is 
greatly injured by Cecil's having again got the upper 
hand in the government, without fear now that the 
other members may overthrow him, for he knows that 
they could not agree together for the purpose." 1 

Whilst Cecil was temporising about the restitution, 
and dallying with the Spanish agents, he kept his hand 
on the pulse of the Catholic Lords. Arundel and his 
party had arranged that De Spes should once more be 
admitted to the Queen's presence at Guildford, and then 

from France that the Queen of Scotland was being utterly ruined by the 
plotting of her servants with you, as they never enter your house without 
being watched. This might cost the Queen her life, and I am not sure that 
yours would be safe." The evidence given afterwards at the Duke of 
Norfolk's trial, and the examinations of Bailly and the Bishop of Ross, 
proved that Cecil had information of everything that occurred. 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. Alba, writing to Philip soon after- 
wards (8th August), says, " I have written several times to Don Gerau, telling 
him to suspend negotiations, as I plainly see they are tricking him, so as to 
get all they can from him, and then say they have negotiated without authority. 
He is zealous . . . but he is inexperienced ; he allows himself to be led away, 
and is ruining the negotiation." It will be seen that it was comparatively 
easy for Cecil to outwit such an instrument as this. 



236 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

go to a meeting of the conspirators at Nonsuch ; but 
Cecil raised difficulties, and himself came to town speci- 
ally to tell De Spes that the Queen could not receive 
him until he obtained fresh credentials direct from Spain. 
Cecil had apparently by this time (August 1569) won 
over the Earl of Pembroke ; and Leicester himself had 
taken fright at the probable result of his plotting. His 
accomplices had gone beyond him. The rise of Norfolk 
and Mary under a Catholic regime would of course have 
meant extinction for Leicester, and though he was ready 
enough to ruin Cecil, he had no wish to be dragged down 
in his fall. "The Duke's party," writes De Spes, "and 
those who favour the Queen of Scotland, are incom- 
parably the greater number. ... I believe there will be 
some great event soon, as the people are much dissatisfied 
and distressed by want of trade, and these gentlemen of 
Nonsuch have some new imaginations in their heads." 

A few days after this was written, Norfolk received 
the ominous warning from the Queen at Titchfield, to 
" beware on what pillow he rested his head." The Duke 
was a poor, weak creature, and instead of accompanying 
the Queen to Windsor, he fled into Norfolk, and from 
there wrote an apology to the Queen. Elizabeth's 
answer was a peremptory summons for him to come 
to court, ill or well. He delayed, and the Queen, in 
a rage, sent and arrested him, confining him first at 
Burnham, near Windsor, and shortly afterwards in the 
Tower. How wise and moderate Cecil was under the 
circumstances, may be seen in his own letters. He 
knew better than any one that the conspiracy was 
primarily directed against him, as one of the conditions 
imposed upon Mary was stated to be that nothing 
should be done against Elizabeth ; 1 yet this is how he 

1 Mary consented to the condition ; and the whole arrangement was, 
according to Norfolk and the Bishop of Ross, acquiesced in by Leicester and 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 237 

wrote to the Queen just before Norfolk was sent to 
the Tower 1 (9th October): "If the Duke shall be 
charged with the crime of treason, and shall not thereof 
be convicted, he shall not only save his credit, but in- 
crease it. And surely, without the facts may appear 
manifest within the compass of treason (which I cannot 
see how they can), he shall be acquitted of that charge ; 
and better it were in the beginning to foresee the matter, 
than attempt it with discredit, and not without suspi- 
cion of evil will and malice. Wherefore I am bold 
to wish that your Majesty would show your intention 
only to inquire of the facts and circumstances, and not 
by any speech to note the same as treason. And if 
your Majesty would yourself consider the words of 
the statute evidencing treasons, I think you would so 
consider it." 

In a letter written by Cecil to Norris a few days 
before this, 2 he says that he had answered to the Queen, 
who was very angry with Norfolk, for the latter's return ; 
and he gives an account of the Duke's plight and re- 
ported willingness to obey the Queen's summons : 

the majority of the Council. How far sincere Mary was in accepting the 
condition, may be seen by her message to De Spes. "She says if she were 
at liberty, or could get such help as would enable her to bring her country to 
submission, she would deliver herself and her son entirely into your Majesty's 
hands, but now she will be obliged to sail with the wind " (De Spes to Philip, 
27th August). This, no doubt, referred to her having consented to the mar- 
riage with Norfolk, and to the proposals submitted by the English Government 
to Murray and the Parliament of Perth for Mary's return to Scotland. Murray 
was opposed to his sister's return in any form, and neither of the Queen's 
propositions, nor Mary's petition for a divorce from Bothwell, was granted. 
That Cecil was at this time (the spring and summer of 1569) desirous of getting 
rid of Mary from England, without allowing her to go to France, where the 
Catholics had just beaten the Huguenots, is certain, and also that he did not 
wish her to be ill used in Scotland. See his minute sent to Murray by Henry 
Carey, demanding to know what hostages would be given for her safety if she 
was returned. (Hatfield Papers, Haynes ; also Strype's Annals, and Rapin.) 

1 Harl. MSS., 6353. 

2 Scrinia Cecil/ana, 3rd October. 



238 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

" whereof I am glad ; first, for the respect of the State, 
and next for the Duke himself, whom of all subjects I 
honoured and loved above the rest, and surely found 
in him always matter so deserving. Whilst this matter 
hath been passing, you must not think but that the 
Queen of Scots was nearer looked to than before ; and 
though evil willers of our State would gladly have seen 
some troublesome issue of this matter, yet, God be 
thanked, I trust they shall be deceived. The Queen 
hath willed Lord Arundel and Lord Pembroke to keep 
their lodgings here, for that they were privy to this 
marriage intended, and did not reveal it to her Majesty ; 
but I think none of them did so with any evil meaning. 1 
Of Lord Pembroke's intent herein, I can witness that he 
meant nothing but well to the Queen's Majesty. Lord 
Lumley is also restrained, and the Queen hath also been 
grievously offended with Lord Leicester, but considering 
that he hath revealed all that he sayeth he knoweth of 
himself, her Majesty spareth her displeasure more towards 
him. Some disquiets must arise, but I trust not hurtful, 
for that her Majesty sayeth she will know the truth, so 
as every one shall see his own fault, and so stay." But 
for all Cecil's diplomatic pleading, Norfolk went to 
the Tower, where, with feigned submission and lying 
protestations, he continued to plot with Mary Stuart 
and the enemies of England. The Catholics and Nor- 

1 In a postscript to a letter from the Earl of Huntingdon to Cecil from 
Coventry, where he was in joint charge of Mary Stuart, 9th December 1569, 
he mentions "the speech that passeth amongst many, how earnest a dealer 
you were for this marriage for which the Duke and others do suffer her 
Majesty's displeasure : yea, it is reported from the mouth of some of the 
sufferers that, in persuasion, you (Cecil) yielded such reasons for it as he (the 
Duke), by them, was most moved to consent." Cecil can hardly have been 
so forward in the matter as is here suggested, or it surely would have been 
mentioned in the rigorous examinations of those implicated. (Hatfield Papers, 
part i.) 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 239 

folk's friends, of course, threw the whole blame upon 
Cecil. 1 

Shortly before Norfolk's arrest, De Spes, who was 
still in close communication with the northern Lords 
and the Duke's friends, wrote to the King, anticipating 
a favourable result of the movement ; " although, on the 
other hand, I observe that Cecil and his fellow-Protest- 
ants on the Council are still very much deluding them- 
selves. Even now, with the peril before them, they will 
not come to reason, so firmly persuaded are they that 
their religion will prevail." As soon as Arundel and his 
friends were placed under arrest, De Spes says that 
" every one cast the blame on Secretary Cecil, who con- 
ducts these affairs with great astuteness." All would be 
lost, he said, by the Duke's cowardice, and the Queen 
of Scots had sent to urge him to behave valiantly. But 
valour was no part of wretched Norfolk's nature. A few 
days before the Duke was lodged in the Tower, an envoy 
of the northern Earls, headed by Northumberland, came 
to De Spes, promising to raise and capture the north 
country, release Mary, restore the Catholic religion, and 
return unconditionally all the Spanish property seized. 
They only asked in return that a few Spanish harque- 
bussiers should be sent ; and they dropped Norfolk out 
of their programme, looking to the Spaniards to provide 
a fit husband for Mary. " Whilst Cecil governs here, no 
good course can be expected, and the Duke of Norfolk 

1 De Spes went so far as to say that it was Cecil who was urging that 
Norfolk should be sent to the Tower — the very reverse, as we now know, being 
the case. Cecil afterwards thought it worth while to defend himself against 
this charge in a note of his still existing in the Cotton MSS. It runs : 
"Whoso sayeth that I have in any wise directly or indirectly hindered or 
altered her Majesty's disposition in the delivery of the Duke of Norfolk out of 
the Tower, I do affirm the same is untrue, and he that sayeth so doth speak 
an untruth. If any man will affirm the same to be true against this, my asser- 
iton, the same doth therein maintain an untruth and a lye» \Y, Qeqil, xii. 
Julii, 1570." 



2 4 o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1569 

says that he wished to get him out of the government 
and change the guard of the Queen of Scotland before 
taking up arms. It is thought they will not dare to take 
the Duke to the Tower, though in this they may be 
deceived, because they who now rule are Protestants, 
and most of them creatures of Cecil." The Secretary's 
attitude in this matter has been treated somewhat at 
length, because it happens that material exists which 
shows conclusively how bitter and unjust were his 
enemies towards him, and how impossible it is to accept, 
without full examination, statements to his detriment, 
made even by men who were in daily communication 
with him. 

In the middle of October the Catholic ferment in the 
north reached its height. The Queen had summoned 
Northumberland and Westmoreland, and they refused 
to obey. Without waiting for the Spanish aid for which 
they had stipulated, they entered Durham with 5000 
foot and 1000 horse, and proclaimed the restoration of 
the Catholic faith. Cecil himself, giving an account of 
the rising to Norris, 1 says, " They have in their company 
priests of their faction, who, to please the people there- 
abouts, give them masses, and some such trash as the 
spoils and wastes where they have been." Smashing 
communion-tables and devastating Protestant houses as 
they went, they advanced to Doncaster ; but the Govern- 
ment had long foreseen the affair, and were ready to cope 
with it. Mary was hurried off, strongly guarded, to 
Coventry, out of the reach of the rebels. Lord Darcy 
repulsed one band ; the Earl of Sussex, president of the 
north, held York against the main body ; the wardens of 
the marches were well prepared and provided by Cecil's 
foresight, and the country people in the great towns 
of the north were intimidated into quietude. On the 

1 2nd November (Scrinia Cecil/ ana). 



1569] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 241 

24th December, Cecil could write : "Thank God, our 
northern rebellion is fallen flat to the ground and 
scattered away. 1 The Earls are fled into Northumber- 
land, seeking all ways to escape, but they are roundly 
pursued, by Sir John Forster and Sir Henry Percy 
in one company, and Lord Sussex in another. The 
1 6th December they broke up their sorry army, the 18th 
entered Northumberland, the 19th into the mountains ; 
they scattered all their footmen, willing them to shift for 
themselves ; and of a thousand horsemen there are left 
but five hundred. By this time they must be fewer, and, 
I trust, either taken or fled into Scotland, where the Earl 
of Murray is in good readiness to chase them to their 
ruin." 2 

So ended, ignominiously, the only important armed 
revolt against Elizabeth in England, but the first of a 
long series of plots against the peace and independence 
of the nation, by which Mary Stuart from her captivity, 
English Catholics who prized their faith more than their 
country, and Spain and the Guises, for their own national 
or dynastic ends, sought to bend the neck of England 
once again to the yoke which the statecraft of Elizabeth 
and her great minister had enabled her to shake off. 

1 Full details of the operations against the rebels will be found in the 
Sadler Papers ; Sir Ralph Sadler being the Warden of the East and Middle 
Marches, and Paymaster-general of the army. 

2 The Earl of Westmoreland succeeded in escaping to Flanders, and 
thence to Spain. He remained a pensioner of Philip's for years afterwards, 
plotting against England, and beseeching payment of the grudging dole which 
the Spanish King had assigned to him. Northumberland was captured by 
Murray and imprisoned in Lochleven ; and at the time of the Regent's assas- 
sination, Elizabeth's special envoys from the Border were negotiating for 
Northumberland's surrender. He was delivered to the English Government 
in 1572 by the Regent Morton, and beheaded at York. 



CHAPTER X 



T-Sl -^ 2 






At no time since her accession had Elizabeth and her 
government been in so much danger as immediately after 
the suppression of the rebellion of the north. Cecil had 
known that the Catholic English and Scottish nobles 
and Mary were in constant communication with Spain 
and the Pope, but even he was not aware how wide- 
spread was the conspiracy. 1 Orange in the Netherlands, 
and Coligny in France, had for a time been crushed ; 
Conde had been killed in battle ; and everywhere the 
Catholic cause was triumphant. This was the eventu- 
ality which alone England had to fear; and although 
Spanish aid to the English Catholics was neither so 
active nor so abundant as has usually been assumed, 

1 On the pretext of negotiating once more for the return of the Spanish 

property seized, Alba sent to England, in October, the famous Italian general, 

Ciapino Vitello, and in his letters to Sadler, Cecil expresses great anxiety as 

to the probability of an attack being made by Alba on Hartlepool at the 

time. English writers have always assumed that Ciapino came to England 

in order to take command of a force to be sent by Alba to England, but there 

is no trace of such a project in Alba's or Guzman's letters. Ciapino was 

forced, however, to leave his large retinue at Dover, and considerable delay 

took place before even he was received. Alba states to Philip that Cecil and 

Leicester had been, or were to be, bribed by the bankers Spinola and Fiesco, 

to allow Ciapino to come to England (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth), but 

Leicester sent word to Ciapino, as soon as the rising in the north was known, 

that his stay in England was considered very suspicious. He was then hurried 

away as soon as possible. There was really, however, not the slightest ground 

at the time to fear an armed invasion by Alba in favour of Mary. He wrote 

to Philip, nth December, that he expected the rising "would all end in 

smoke," and he would not move a step without Philip's precise instructions. 

242 



1570] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 243 

unquestionably the hopes and promises held out both 
by Philip and the Pope had raised the spirits of the 
Catholics in England and Scotland higher than they 
had been for many years. Spanish money and support 
under papal auspices kept Ireland in a state of discord, 
as we have seen ; Mary appealed to King Philip as a 
vassal to her suzerain ; the Guisan agents were busy 
plotting with the Hamiltons and Murray's enemies on 
the Border, and the whole north of England was riddled 
with religious discontent. Cecil wrote at the beginning 
of 1570 to Norris : " We have discovered some tokens, 
and we hear of some words uttered by the Earl of 
Northumberland, that maketh us think this rebellion 
had more branches, both of our own and strangers, than 
did appear, and I trust the same will be found out, 
though perchance when all are known in secret manner, 
all may not be notified." 

The truth of Cecil's forebodings came soon after- 
wards. On the 22nd February 1570, Murray was shot 
by a Hamilton in the streets of Linlithgow, and in the 
anarchy which followed, the friends of Mary Stuart on 
the Scottish Border invaded England. Maitland of Leth- 
ington and others who had hitherto stood firmly by 
Murray, now turned to the side of the Hamiltons and 
the French party ; whilst a special French Guisan envoy 
boldly demanded of Elizabeth, in the name of the King 
of France, Mary Stuart's release, permission for himself 
to pass into Scotland, and a pledge from the English 
Queen that in future she would refrain from supporting 
the Huguenots. Papal emissaries whispered at first that 
the Pope had excommunicated " the flagitious pretended 
Queen of England " ; and then one Catholic, bolder than 
the rest (Felton), dared publicly to post the bull on the 
Bishop of London's door. The Bishop of Ross was 
tireless in spreading the view of Mary's innocence and 



244 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1570 

unmerited sufferings, 1 and many Englishmen who were 
opposed to her in everything were scandalised at her 
continued captivity. So strong a Protestant as Sir 
Henry Norris, the English Ambassador in Paris — for 
ever the butt of French remonstrance against Mary's 
imprisonment — advised Cecil to have her released. But 
Sir William knew better the risk of such a step now, and 
replied, " Surely few here amongst us conceive it feasible 
with surety," and he was right. Stories, too, came from 
Flanders of plans to assassinate Elizabeth ; but she was 
never so strong or wise as when the circumstances were 
difficult and dangerous. " I know not," writes Cecil, 
" by what means, but her Majesty is not much troubled 
with the opinion of danger ; nevertheless I and others 
cannot be but greatly fearful for her, and do, and will 
do, all that in us may lie to understand by God's assist- 
ance the attempts." 

It was not long before Cecil had once more triumphed 
over his enemies on the Council and in England : the 
danger that then threatened was from without. Again, 
the policy of disabling the foreign Catholics by aiding 
the Protestants was resorted to. Killigrew was kept 
busy in Germany arranging with Hans Casimir and 
other mercenary leaders, to raise large forces for the 
purpose of entering France and enabling the Huguenots 
to avenge their disasters. 2 Cardinal Chatillon was still a 

1 See inter alia the Bishop of Ross's letter to Philip, 4th November 1 569 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth). His mistress, he says, had ordered him 
to remonstrate with Elizabeth against her imprisonment at Tutbury, and to 
demand either her restoration to her throne, or that she should be allowed to 
go over to France or Spanish Flanders. He can get no answer from Eliza- 
beth, he says, and therefore in Mary's name fervently begs for Philip's aid. 

2 Very large sums were granted by Elizabeth for this purpose. To Count 
Mansfield alone she promised 100,000 crowns payable in three months, and a 
like sum in two years. In February the Prince of Orange sent an envoy to 
England to beg for similar aid, which was to be largely supplemented by the 
Flemings in England. The envoy was secretly lodged in Cecil House. 



i 5 7o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 245 

welcome guest at the English court. The privateers in the 
Channel were stronger and bolder than ever, and had 
practically swept Spanish shipping from the narrow seas. 
The Flemings were encouraged with promises of help 
and support when Orange had once more organised a 
force to cope with Alba. Sussex and Hunsdon in the 
meanwhile did not let the grass grow under their feet, 
but harried both sides of the Border, stamping out the 
last embers of rebellion, and striking terror into the 
Catholic fugitives, whilst Morton and the Protestant 
party were consolidating their position, momentarily 
shaken by the murder of Murray. 1 De Spes was cease- 
lessly clamouring to the King and Alba for armed inter- 
vention in England before it was too late. Mary might be 
captured by a coup de main f as she herself suggested, and 
carried to Spain ; a few troops sent to Scotland now, said 
the Bishop of Ross, might overturn the new Regency ; 
a small force in Ireland would easily expel the heretics ; 
" and the whole nation will rise as soon as they see your 
Majesty's standard floating over ships on their coast." 

But Alba distrusted both French and English, Pro- 
testants and Catholics alike. He knew that the confla- 
gration in the Netherlands was still all aglow beneath the 
surface, and he dared not plunge into war with England. 
His slow master pondered and plotted, beset with cares 
and poverty, and unableto wreak his vengeance upon Eng- 
land until he had the certainty of Mary Stuart's exclusive 
devotion to his interests. But the extent and complexity 

1 There is an interesting memorandum of this period in Cecil's hand (Hat- 
field Papers, part i., Nos. 1452 and 1455), entitled, " Extract of ye booke of ye 
state of ye realme," in which the various dangers set forth in this page and the 
remedies therefor are described. The dangers are — the conspiracy of the Pope 
and the Kings of France and Spain against England ; that of Mary Queen of 
Scots ; the decay of civil obedience and of martial power in the country ; the 
interruption of trade with Flanders, and the shortcomings in England's treaties 
with foreign princes. 



246 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1570 

of Philip's difficulties were only known to himself, and 
the danger appeared to Cecil even greater than it was. 

The plague had raged in London for the whole of 
the summer of 1569, and a recrudescence of it in the 
following June gave Cecil a good opportunity for advo- 
cating Norfolk's partial enlargement. The Duke made 
a most solemn renunciation of his proposed marriage 
with Mary, and craved Elizabeth's forgiveness ; and 
at length in August was allowed to retire to his own 
house. That he owed his liberation to Cecil is clear 
from his letters. At the beginning of July, apparently, 
some person — probably Leicester — had told the Duke 
that Cecil was against him, and the Secretary showed 
him how false this was, and proposed to take action 
against his slanderers. The Duke in reply thanked him 
for his friendly dealing and his frank explanation, " which 
have sufficiently purged him (Cecil) and laid the fault on 
those who deserved it." But he begged him. to refrain 
from further action, as it might cause mischief. 1 When 
Norfolk at length was " rid of yonder pestylent infectyous 
hows" (the Tower), he unhesitatingly attributed his release 
to Cecil. How busy the slanderers of the Secretary were, 
and how deeply he felt the wounds they dealt him, may 
be seen in another statement in his own hand of the 
same period 2 (July 1570), which contains an indignant 
denial of the reports that had been spread with regard 
to his alleged dishonest dealing with the property of his 
ward the Earl of Oxford. 

During the whole of Norfolk's stay in the Tower and 
afterwards, the love-letters between him and Mary con- 
tinued, the Queen signing her letters " your own faithful 
to death," and using many similar terms of endearment ; 3 

1 Hatfield Papers, part i. 2 Ibid. 

3 See her letters in Labanoff, iii., and also Banister's Confessions (Hat- 
field). 



i57o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 247 

and Cecil could hardly have been entirely ignorant of 
the Duke's bad faith. But for political reasons it was 
considered necessary, not only to conciliate him, but 
Mary and the Spaniards as well. Concurrently, there- 
fore, with the negotiations for Norfolk's release, a show 
of willingness was made to come to terms with Mary. 
Her presence in England was an embarrassment and a 
danger, and now that Murray was dead, the principal 
personal obstacle to her return had disappeared. If she I 
could be so tied down as to be used as a means for paci- 
fying Scotland, whilst depending for the future entirely 
upon England, her return to her country would relieve 
Elizabeth of a difficulty. The first basis of negotiation 
was the surrender of the English rebel Lords in exchange 
for her, and the delivery to England of four or six of the 
principal Scottish nobles andthe young Prince as hostages. 
But these terms were by no means acceptable to Mary's 
agents or to herself. She feared that the Scots would 
kill her, and the English her son, and so secure the joint 
kingdoms to a nominee of Elizabeth or Cecil. 

The main reason for Elizabeth's change of attitude 
must be sought in the panic which seized upon England 
in the early summer of 1570. A powerful Spanish fleet 
was in the Channel, ostensibly to convey Philip's fourth 
wife, Anne of Austria, from Flanders to Spain ; but 
rumours came that the dreaded Duke of Alba was ready 
now for the invasion of England. The Guises in Nor- 
mandy, too, were said to have an army of harquebussiers 
waiting to embark for Scotland ; the Irish rebels were 
being helped both by Philip and the Guises. The Pope's 
bull absolving Englishmen from their oaths of allegiance 
was the talk everywhere, and English merchants in 
despair cried that at last they and their country were to 
pay for the depredations of the pirates. The French 
were demanding haughtily that the English troops should 



248 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1570 

evacuate the Border Scottish fortresses held by them, 
and the Protestants in France and Flanders were not yet 
prepared to furnish the diversion upon which the English 
usually depended for their own safety. 

The position was very grave in appearance, though 
not so great in reality, and it alarmed Elizabeth out of 
her equanimity. De Guaras says that she shut herself 
up for three days, and railed against Cecil for bringing 
her to such a pass ; and the same observer reports that 
when Cecil one day in the middle of July left the Queen 
and retired to his own apartment, he cried to his wife in 
deep distress, " O wife ! if God do not help us we shall 
be lost and undone. Get together all the jewels and 
money you can, that you may follow me when the time 
comes ; for surely trouble is in store for us." x This may 
or may not be true in detail, and also Guaras' assertion 
that Cecil had sent large private funds to Germany, 
whither he would retire in case of trouble ; but it is 
certain that panic reigned supreme for a few weeks in 
the summer, accentuated, doubtless, by the plague which 
was devastating the country. But fright did not para- 
lyse the minister for long, if at all. Twenty-five ships 
were hastily armed, two fresh armies were raised of five 
thousand men each, ostensibly for Scotland. Mary was 
prompted to send Livingston to Scotland to negotiate an 
arrangement with the Regent Lennox, and Cecil him- 
self, with Sir Walter Mildmay, was induced to go and 
confer with Mary at Chatsworth ; but, says De Spes, " all 
these things are simply tricks of Cecil's, who thinks 
thereby to cheat every one, in which to a certain 
extent he succeeds." The Secretary had by this time 
discovered that in any case neither Philip nor Alba 
would raise a finger to avenge a slight upon De Spes, 
for he had imprisoned him and distressed him in a 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



iS7o] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 249 

thousand ways already without retaliation. At the same 
time, a blow at such a notorious conspirator as he was 
could not fail to produce a great effect upon the English 
Catholics who plotted with him and looked to Spain 
alone for support. Cecil therefore sent Fitzwilliams to 
Flanders about the seizures, and instructed him to 
complain to Alba of De Spes' communications with the 
rebels. ,." His object/' wrote the Ambassador, " is to expel 
me, now that they think I understand the affairs of this 
country ; and Cecil thinks that I, with others, might make 
such representations to the Queen as would diminish 
his great authority. . . . Cecil is a crafty fox, a mortal 
enemy of the Catholics and to our King, and it is 
necessary to watch his designs very closely, because 
he proceeds with the greatest caution and dissimulation. 
There is nothing in his power he does not attempt to 
injure us. The Queen's own opinion is of little import- 
ance, and that of Leicester less ; so that Cecil unre- 
strainedly and arrogantly governs all. . . . Your worship 
may be certain that if Cecil is allowed to have his way 
he will disturb the Netherlands." x De Spes' informa- 
tion was correct on the latter point, as well it might be, 
for in addition to Cecil's own secretary, Allington, he 
had in his pay Sir James Crofts, a member of the 
Council, and the Secretary of the Council, Bernard 
Hampton, who between them brought him news of 
everything that passed in the Council or in Cecil House. 
The Secretary's efforts to get rid of so troublesome 
a guest as De Spes, and to offer an object-lesson to the 
English Catholics at the same time, were persistent, and 
in the end successful. De Spes was refused the treat- 
ment of an ambassador, threatened with the Tower, 
flouted, slighted, and insulted at every turn ; but he could 
only futilely storm and fret, for neither his King nor 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



2 5 o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1570 

Alba was pleased with the difficult position which his 
violence had created for them in England. It was all 
the fault of Cecil personally, insisted De Spes. He 
wished to afflict the Catholic cause without witnesses, 
and would stick at nothing, even poison, to get rid of 
the Spaniard. 

Cecil would have liked to avoid his mission to Mary 
Stuart, for he was almost crippled with constant gout, 
and he was fully aware of the hollowness of the negotia- 
tions in hand. The interviews with Mary could hardly 
have been agreeable, although they were carried out with 
great formality and politeness on both sides. Cecil charged 
her with a knowledge of the northern rebellion, which 
she only partly denied, saying, however, that she did 
not encourage it. Mary seems to have been alternately 
passionate and tearful ; but her bad adviser, the Bishop 
of Ross, was by her side, and though she argued her case 
shrewdly, she could not refrain from unwisely and un- 
necessarily wounding Elizabeth at the outset. 1 In the 
second article of the proposed treaty, where Elizabeth's 
issue were to be preferred in the succession, Mary 
altered the words to " lawful issue," to which Elizabeth, 
although acceding to it, replied that Mary " measured 
other folk's disposition by her own actions." After 
some acrimony on the subject of other alterations on 
behalf of Mary, an arrangement was arrived at, which, 
however, was afterwards vetoed by the Scottish Govern- 
ment, 2 at the instance of Morton, who was the Com- 
missioner in London. 

Whilst the negotiations with Mary had been pro- 
gressing, peace had been signed between the Huguenots 

1 The whole of the documents are at Hatfield ; most of them in extenso 
in Haynes. 

2 See Morton to Cecil, 9th February 1571 (Hatfield Papers, part i., 1541) ; 
and Elizabeth to Shrewsbury, 24th March [ibid.., 1546). 



1 57°] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 251 

and Charles IX. at St. Germains (August 1570), and the 
fears of Elizabeth and Cecil were consequently aggra- 
vated at the plans which were known to be promoted 
by Cardinal Lorraine for the marriage of the Duke of 
Anjou, next brother to the French King, with the Queen 
of Scots. Now that the Montmorencis and the "poli- 
ticians " had reconciled parties in France, the danger of 
such a match became serious both to England and the 
sincere Huguenots. Anjou posed as the figurehead of 
the extreme Catholic party, but was known to be vaguely 
ambitious and unstable. Cardinal Chatillon therefore 
thought it would be a good move to disarm him by yoking 
him under Huguenot auspices to Elizabeth. The first 
approach was made by the Vidame de Chartres to Cecil, 
who privately discussed it with the Queen. They must 
have regarded it with favour, for it was exactly the instru- 
ment they needed for splitting the league, and arousing 
jealousybetween France and Spain. The Emperor had just 
given a severe rebuff to attempts to revive the Archduke's 
match with Elizabeth, but the negotiation for making a 
French Catholic prince King-consort of England under 
Huguenot control was a master-stroke which sufficed 
to overturn all international combinations, set France 
and Spain by the ears, turned the Guises, as relatives of 
Mary Stuart, against their principal supporter in France, 
and reduced the Queen of Scots herself to quite a 
secondary element in the problem. The idea was just 
as welcome to Catharine de Medici, who hated Mary 
Stuart as much as she dreaded the Guises. Both she 
and the young King would have been glad to be quit 
of the ambitious Anjou, who always threw in his weight 
on the Catholic side, and made it more difficult for 
the Queen-mother to hold the balance. So, very soon 
Guido Cavalcanti was speeding backwards and for- 
wards between England and France, secretly preparing 



252 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1571 

the way for the more formal negotiations between the 
official Ambassadors. 

So far as the Queen of England was concerned, the 
negotiation was purely political and insincere, for the 
reasons just stated, but the comedy was well played by 
all parties. Leicester of course was favourable, for it 
meant bribes to him, and there was no danger. La 
Mothe F^nelon, the Ambassador, gently broached the 
matter to the Queen at Hampton Court in January 1571. 
As usual she was coy and coquettish. She was too old 
for Anjou, she objected, but still she said the princes of 
the House of France had the reputation of being good 
husbands. 1 Cardinal Chatillon shortly afterwards was 
blunter than the Ambassador. Would the Queen marry 
Anjou if he proposed ? he asked, to which Elizabeth 
replied, that on certain conditions she would ; and the 
next day she submitted the subject to her Council, who, 
as in duty bound, threw the whole of the responsibility 
on to the Queen. 

Walsingham had just replaced Norris as Ambassador 
to France. He was a friend of Leicester, a strict Pro- 
testant, who had been indoctrinated in the political 
methods of Cecil, with whom and with Leicester he kept 
up a close confidential correspondence. 2 One of his 
first letters to Leicester gives a personal description of 
the young Prince, in which a desire to tell the truth 
struggles with his duty not to say anything which may 
hamper the negotiation. The Guises and the Spanish 
party in Paris exhorted Anjou to avoid being drawn 
into the net, and the Duke himself at one time openly 
used insulting expressions towards Elizabeth ; but such 
was the position in England that it was absolutely 

1 Correspondance de la Mothe Fenilon. 

2 Walsingham Papers. Most of the letters in extenso in " The Compleat 
Ambassador. " 



1 57 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 253 

necessary that an appearance of reality should be given 
to the affair. Prudent Cecil, as usual, avoided pledging 
himself personally more than necessary, and wrote from 
Greenwich to Walsingham on the 3rd March, that he 
had wished the Queen herself to write her instruc- 
tions, but as she had declined to do so, he merely 
repeated her words in a postscript — namely, that if he 
(Walsingham) were approached on the matter of the mar- 
riage, he might say that before he left England he had 
heard "that the Queen, upon consideration of the benefit 
of her realm, and to content her subjects, had resolved 
to marry if she should find a fit husband, who must be 
of princely rank." To this Cecil himself adds as his 
private opinion, to be told to no one, " I am not able 
to discern what is best, but surely I see no continuance 
of her quietness without a marriage." 1 Matters were 
indeed critical at this juncture, and Cecil, Leicester, and 
even Walsingham, repeatedly, and apparently with sin- 
cerity, stated their opinion that Elizabeth would be forced 
to wed Anjou, or he would marry Mary Stuart, as it was 
necessary for Catharine de Medici and the Huguenots 
to get rid of this fanatical figurehead of the extreme 
Catholic party. 2 

In his letter to Walsingham of 1st March, Cecil signs 

1 There are in the Foreign State Papers of the year several of Cecil's 
balancing considerations of the advantages and disadvantages of the match. 
From them it is clear that the Secretary himself was uncertain of the Queen's 
intentions. In one important letter to her (31st August), Cecil suggests away 
by which she may extricate herself, if she pleases, from the agreement she had 
made on the matter with Catharine's special envoy, De Foix, at Knebworth. 
But he warns her very seriously of the dangerous position in which she stands 
unless she does marry. "It will," he says, "also be necessaiy to seek by 
your Majesty's best council the means to preserve yourself, as in the most 
dangerous and desperate sicknesses, the help of the best physicians ; and 
surely how your Majesty shall obtain remedies for your perils, I think, is only 
in the knowledge of Almighty God." 

2 Norris to the Queen (Foreign State Papers), 31st August 1570 ; also 
War cop's communications from Walsingham to Cecil, 16th July 1571, &c. 



254 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1571 

his name thus, " By your assured (as I was wont) 
William Cecil ; " and then underneath, " And as I am 
now ordered to write, William Burleigh." x That the 
title was not of his own seeking is almost certain. The 
Spanish Ambassador, De Spes, says that the Queen 
ennobled him in order that he might be more useful 
in Parliament and in the matter of the Queen of Scots ; 
and the new Lord himself, in a letter to Nicholas White, 
speaks thus slightingly of his new honour : " My style 
is Lord of Burghley if you mean to know it for your 
writing, and if you list to write truly, the poorest Lord 
in England. Yours, not changed in friendship, though 
in name, William Burghley." To Walsingham again he 
wrote on the 25th March, " My style of my poor degree 
is Lord of Burghley ; " and on the 14th April in a letter 
to the same correspondent he signs, " William Cecill — 
I forgot my new word, William Burleigh." 

At the time of his elevation the new Lord was suffer- 
ing from one of his constantly recurring fits of gout, and 
his letters are mostly written, with pain and difficulty, 
which he frequently mentions, " from my bed in my 
house at Westminster." And yet, withal, the amount 
of work he got through at the time was nothing short 
of marvellous. Every matter, great and small, seemed 
to be dealt with by him. He was a Member of Parlia- 
ment for the two counties of Lincoln and Northamp- 
ton ; 2 as Chancellor of the University of Cambridge he 

1 Walsingham Papers. 

2 His eldest son Thomas, afterwards Lord Exeter, also sat in this Parlia- 
ment as representative of the borough of Stamford. He had ended the sowing 
of his wild oats, to which reference has been made, by running away with a 
nun from a French convent ; and was now married to Dorothy Nevil, a 
daughter of the last Lord Latimer, whose sister had married Sir Henry Percy, 
brother of the rebel Earl of Northumberland. Lord Burghley, in the little 
Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield, duly records the birth of all of Thomas's 
children, three of whom had been born by this time. 



i57i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 255 

was deeply interested in the interminable disputes there 
with regard to ritual, vestments, and scholastic ques- 
tions ; as President of the Court of Wards he attended 
personally to an immense number of estates and private 
interests ; x and acquaintances, high and low, from Greys, 
Howards, Clintons, and Dudleys, down to poor students 
or alien refugees, still by common accord addressed their 
petitions for aid and advice to him. To judge by their 
grateful acknowledgments, they seem rarely to have 
appealed to him in vain, and it is evident by the hun- 
dreds of such letters at Hatfield, that even when peti- 
tions could not be granted, they were assured of impartial 
and just consideration from Lord Burghley. His own 
great establishments, too, at Burghley, Theobalds, and 
London, must have claimed much of his attention, for all 
accounts passed under his own eyes, and in such small 
matters as the rotation of crops, the sale of produce, 
the breeding of stock, and the replenishment of gardens, 
nothing was done without consultation with the master. 
His hospitality was very great ; for we are told by his 
domestic biographer that "he kept open house every- 
where, and his steward kept a standing table for gentle- 
men, besides two other long tables, often twice set out, 
one for the clerk of the kitchen, and the other for 
yeomen." He personally can have had but little enjoy- 
ment from his splendid houses and stately living. He 
must have been almost constantly at court, or hard 



] The young Earl of Rutland, one of his wards, especially at this time 
seems to have occupied much of his attention. He was sent with Lord 
Buckhurst's embassy to France to congratulate Charles IX. on his marriage 
with Elizabeth of Austria, and at every stage of the journey a correspondence 
was kept up between them, the Secretary being solicitous for the lad's 
welfare and good treatment even to the smallest detail. In the State Papers, 
Domestic, of 20th January 1571, there is a curious document in Cecil's hand- 
writing, headed " Directions for a Traveller," laying down for Lord Rutland's 
guidance strict rules for his conduct whilst abroad. 



256 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1571 

at work at his house in Cannon Row, Westminster, 
handy for Whitehall, rather than at his new palace in 
the Strand, where his wife and family lodged. He 
seems to have had no hobby but books and gardens, 
and to have taken no exercise except on his rare visits 
to Theobalds or Burghley, when he would jog round 
his garden paths on an ambling mule. 

This was the man, vigilant, prudent, moderate, cau- 
tious and untiring in his industry, who in the spring and 
summer of 1571 by his consummate statecraft once more 
brought England out of the coil of perils which sur- 
rounded her on all sides. His counter-move to Spanish 
support to the rebels in England and Ireland, and to 
Guisan plots in Scotland, was to supply arms, muni- 
tions, and money to the Protestants of Rochelle and 
the Dutch privateers, and to fit out a strong English 
fleet. The pacification of France and the crushing of 
reform in Flanders were answered by remittances of 
money to Germany to raise mercenaries for Orange, 
and the welcoming of Louis of Nassau and Cardinal 
Chatillon in England ; whilst the marriage of Charles 
IX. to an Austrian Princess, and the closer relations 
between France and the Catholic league, were counter- 
acted by the marriage negotiations between Elizabeth 
and Anjou, and the treaty with Mary Stuart for her 
restoration. 

But as the effect of Cecil's diplomacy gradually be- 
came apparent, the more reckless of his opponents 
resorted to desperate devices to frustrate him. Already, 
by February 1571, Mary Stuart had convinced herself 
that the treaty for her liberation was fallacious, and she 
wrote an important letter to the Bishop of Ross, from 
which great events sprang. 1 She refers to plans for 
her escape, and announces her decision to go to Spain, 

1 Mary to the Bishop, 8th February 1571 (Cotton MSS., Caligula, c. xi.). 



1 57 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 257 

throwing herself in future entirely upon Philip as her 
protector ; and she urges that Ridolfi should be sent to 
Spain and Rome to explain her situation and resolve, 
and to beg for help. Norfolk was to be asked to pledge 
himself finally to become a Catholic ; doubt as to his 
religion, she says, having been the principal reason for 
Philip's lukewarmness. The Bishop sent a copy of the 
letter to Norfolk, who was still nominally under arrest. 
The Duke gave his consent, and Ridolfi started from 
England at the end of March. It has been frequently 
denied that Norfolk connived at this proposal for the 
invasion of England by a foreign power ; but, in addi- 
tion to the depositions of Ross and Barker, 1 the follow- 
ing letter from De Spes introducing Ridolfi to Philip 
appears to settle the question against the Duke : 2 " The 
Queen of Scots, and the Duke of Norfolk on behalf 
of many other lords and gentlemen who are attached 
to your Majesty's interests, and the promotion of the 
Catholic religion, are sending Rodolfo Ridolfi, a Floren- 
tine gentleman, to offer their services to your Majesty, 
and to represent to you that the time is now ripe to take 
a step of great benefit to Christianity, as in detail Ridolfi 
will set forth to your Majesty. The letter of credence 
from the Duke of Norfolk is written in the cipher that 
I have sent to Zayas, for fear it should be taken. 
London, 25th March, 1571." The exact proposal to 
be made verbally by Ridolfi is not stated, but De Spes 
refers to it in his next letter as " the real remedy " for 
Lord Burghley's activity. It is probable that not only 
the support of Mary and Norfolk was intended, but also 
the assassination of Elizabeth and her minister. 3 Cecil 

1 Hatfield Papers and State Trials. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

3 That this possibility was ever present to the minds of Elizabeth's advisers, 
is seen by the constant warnings on the subject by Cecil's agents in Flanders, 

R 



258 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1571 

had been put upon the alert by the kidnapping in 
Flanders and bringing to England of the notorious Dr. 
Storey, who, under torture in the Tower, had divulged 
the dealings of the northern Lords with Alba through 
Ridolfi and the Bishop of Ross. This caused Cecil to 
keep a watch upon the doings of both the agents ; and 
Lord Cobham, in Dover, was instructed to intercept 
any cipher letters which might be brought by a Flemish 
secretary of the Bishop of Ross, one Charles Bailly, who 
was with Ridolfi in Flanders. The man was stopped 
and his papers captured, with some copies of the Bishop 
of Ross's book in favour of Mary's claims. The Cobhams 
were never to be trusted ; and Thomas Cobham surrep- 
titiously obtained the cipher keys, and had them conveyed 
to De Spes, substituting for them a dummy packet, which 
was sent to Cecil. But Bailly himself, who had written 
the papers at Ridolfi's dictation, was promptly put on 
the rack in the Tower, and confessed that the letters 
were written to two persons, designated by numbers, 
under cover to the Bishop, and conveyed the Duke of 
Alba's approval of the plan for invading England, and 
his readiness, if authorised by his King, to co-operate 
with the persons indicated. 

Letters sent by the Bishop to Bailly after his arrest, 
urging him to firmness, threatening the traitor who had 
betrayed him, and in a hundred ways proving his own 
complicity, were all intercepted and read. The tortured 
wretch swore to the Bishop that he would tell nothing, 
even if they tore him into a hundred pieces ; begged that 
his trunk containing drafts of letters from Mary to Car- 

and by Walsingham. In one of Cecil's statements as to the advantages and 
disadvantages of the Queen's marriage with Anjou (Foreign State Papers, 14th 
January 1571), he enters on the contra side the possibility that, in the case of 
there being no issue, the King-consort might shorten the Queen's life and 
marry Mary Stuart. The confessions of the men who were to murder 
Burghley in connection with the Ridolfi plot are at Hatfield. 



i57«] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 259 

dinal Lorraine and Hamilton might be rescued from his 
lodging. But Burghley forestalled them all. The whole 
of the letters were taken, and every day, in the Tower, 
fresh rackings, and threats to cut off his ears or his head, 
were used by Burghley to the frightened lad, to force 
him to give a key of the cipher. One morning at five 
o'clock he was carried by the Lieutenant of the Tower 
to Lord Burghley, and was told that, unless he immedi- 
ately confessed all, he would be racked till the truth was 
torn from him. The lad, half distraught, day by day 
unfolded as much as he knew, notwithstanding the 
Bishop's frantic assurances that Burghley would not 
dare to harm him much, as he was a foreigner and a 
servant of the Queen of Scots. 1 And so, piece by piece, 
the whole conspiracy was unravelled so far as regarded 
the main object, and the complicity of Alba, the Spaniards 
and the Bishop of Ross proved beyond doubt ; but still 
the persons indicated by the cipher numbers "30" and 
"40" could only be surmised, for Bailly himself did not 
know them. Gradually the names of Mary Stuart and 
Norfolk crept into the depositions of those examined, 
but without sufficient definiteness yet for open proceed- 
ings against them to be commenced. 

Whilst Lord Burghley, with inexhaustible patience, 
was tracking the plot to its source, the most elaborate 
pretence of agreement with the French on the subject of 
the Anjou match was kept up both in Paris and London; 
though more sincere on the part of the former than the 

1 Details of all the examinations and the letters are at Hatfield. Burghley 
alleged that Bailly was a Scotchman. His claimed to be considered a servant 
of the Queen of Scots was merely a technical one, although on his tomb in a 
church in a suburb of Brussels he is called a secretary of the Queen, which he 
certainly was not, and there is a bas-relief of her execution. This has led on 
several occasions to the incorrect assertion that Charles Bailly was present at 
the scene represented. He lived for many years in Flanders in the pay of 
Spain; and, at least on one occasion (1586), he took part in a Spanish 
attempt to foment a Catholic invasion and revolution in Scotland. 



260 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [157* 

latter, for Catharine and Charles IX. were in mortal fear 
of the Guises, the League, and the heir-presumptive to the 
crown. Cavalcanti and officers of the King's household 
ran backwards and forwards to England with loving mes- 
sages ; and the Huguenots worked their best to bring 
the matter to a successful issue, or, in default of it, for 
a close alliance. Henry Cobham was sent to Madrid 
ostensibly to treat on the matter of the seizures, but 
really to learn, if possible, how far Philip was pledged 
to the plans against England ; but the Spaniards were 
forewarned and ready for him, and he learned nothing. 

Lord Burghley had, however, a better plan than this. 
Fitzwilliam, a relative of the English Duchess of Feria, 
had been sent to Spain by him for the purpose of nego- 
tiating for the release of the men and hostages who had 
been captured from Hawkins at San Juan de Ulloa. 
He professed in Spain to be strongly Catholic and in 
favour of Mary Stuart, and came back to England in 
1 57 1, with presents, pledges, and promises to the captive 
Queen and her friends. Hawkins lay with a strong 
auxiliary fleet at the mouth of the Channel, and it was 
agreed with Lord Burghley that Fitzwilliam and Hawkins 
should hoodwink the Spaniards, obtain a good haul for 
themselves, and at the same time trace the ramifications 
of the great international plot against England. De 
Spes jumped at the bait, with but a mere qualm of mis- 
giving, when Fitzwilliam went and offered, on behalf of 
Hawkins, to desert with all his fleet to Spain, and take 
part, if necessary, in an attack upon England. When 
he wrote to the King he said, " My only fear is lest 
Burghley himself may have set the matter afoot to dis- 
cover your Majesty's feelings, though I have seen nothing 
to make me think this." 

But it was exactly the case, nevertheless, and the 
ruse succeeded beyond expectation. By the end of 



157'] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 261 

August all Hawkins' men had been released in Spain 
and sent back to England, with ten dollars each in 
their pockets, and Hawkins himself was the better off 
by -£40,000 of Spanish money. But more than this : 
Burghley had obtained through Fitzwilliam full know- 
ledge of the aims of the Ridolfi conspiracy. It was clear 
now to demonstration that the Pope, 1 Philip, and the 
Catholic party in France were pledged to a vast crusade 
against England, for crushing Protestantism, destroying 
Elizabeth, 2 and raising Mary Stuart to the thrones of Great 
Britain. Burghley and the Queen had practically known 
it for months, as we have seen, and already the diplo- 
matic measures they had taken to counteract it were 
producing their effects. But now that the evidence was 
sufficient, the blow against the conspirators could be 
struck openly. All unsuspecting still, De Spes was com- 
forting himself with the reflection that the capture of 
Bailly was an unimportant incident ; he urged Alba and 
the King to immediate action, fumed at the instructions 
he received to hold back Philip's letters to Mary and 
Norfolk until he had orders to deliver them, and sneered 
at the timid delay. "As all of Lord Burghley's jests 
have turned out well for him hitherto, he is ready to 
undertake anything, and has no fear of danger. They 
and the French together make great fun of our meek- 
ness." " It is a pity to lose time, for Lord Burghley is 
continuing to oppress the Catholics. If the opportunity 
is lost this year, I fear the false religion will prevail in 
this island in a way which will make it a harsh neighbour 
for the Netherlands." 

1 The Pope had sent by Beton, early in the year, as much as 140,000 
crowns to Mary Stuart, which she received through Ridolfi. (Examination of 
Ross: Hatfield.) 

2 The conspiracy included also a design to assassinate Burghley himself. 
(See the confessions of Edmund Mather, the proposed murderer, and Kenelm 
Berney, January 1572. Hatfield State Papers, part ii.). 



262 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1571 

The opportunity, though he did not know it, had 
been lost already, for all the threads were now in 
Burghley's hands, and he was master of the situation. 
In August was intercepted the bag of money (^600) with 
a cipher letter 1 being sent secretly to Herries and Kirkaldy 
of Grange, Mary's friends in Scotland, by the Duke of 
Norfolk's secretary, and in a day or two the net swept 
into the Tower the Duke and all the underlings who had 
served as intermediaries. Burghley lost no time now. 
Almost every day, threats or the rack wrung some 
fresh admission from the instruments — secretaries, 
messengers, and the like. Norfolk at first, with extreme 
effrontery, denied everything ; 2 but he was a weak man, 
and soon broke down. Even then De Spes did not see 
that all was lost. " The Catholics," he said, " are many, 
though their leaders be few, and Lord Burghley, with his 
terrible fury, has greatly harassed and dismayed them, 
for they are afraid even of speaking to each other. The 
whole affair depends upon getting weapons into their 
hands, and giving them some one to direct them." 3 It 
was too late. Mary Stuart's prison was made closer ; 
her correspondence was intercepted and read ; there 
was no more concealment necessary or possible. One 
Catholic noble after the other was isolated and im- 
prisoned ; Dr. Storey's dreadful fate was held up as a 
warning to traitors, and London and the country was 
flooded with broadsheets calculated to arouse English 
and Protestant sentiment to fever heat at the dastardly 
conspiracy which was laid bare. 

On the 14th December a message reached De Spes 
summoning him to the Council at Whitehall. When 
he arrived there he found them awaiting him, with Lord 

1 The cipher letter from Hickford will be found in Harl. MSS., 290. 

2 Examination of the Duke (Hatfield ; in extenso in Murdin). 

3 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1572] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 263 

Burghley as spokesman. There was no mincing matters. 
The Ambassador was told that he had plotted with traitors 
against the Queen's life and the peace of the country, and 
he would be expelled, as Dr. Man had been from Spain 
with far less reason. 1 De Spes tried to brazen it out, but 
ineffectually. Burghley was on firm ground : no delay, 
he said, could be allowed, excepting the time absolutely 
necessary for the preparations for the voyage, which 
time was to be passed out of London. 2 Speechless, 
almost, with indignation, in pretended fear that Burghley 
would have him killed, De Spes was hustled out of the 
country he had sought to ruin, and a week afterwards 
(16th January 1572) the Duke of Norfolk was tried by 
his peers and found guilty of the capital crime of high 
treason. 

De Spes left England with bitter resentment at the 
triumph of Burghley's diplomacy. " They will now/' 
he says, " make themselves masters of the Channel, and 
with one blow, with their practices in Flanders, will 
plunge that country into a dreadful war. It is of no 
use now to speak of our lost opportunities. They have 
gone ; but . . . steps may still be taken to make these 
people weep in their own country." When he arrived 

1 The English draft of Burghley's speech is in Foreign State Papers ; De 
Spes' version in the Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 It added to De Spes' rage that the time he was thus contemned Burghley 
was celebrating with great magnificence the marriage of his eldest daughter, 
Elizabeth, with the young Earl of Oxford, a connection which in after years 
brought him much trouble and anxiety. During the wedding festivities the open 
slight to Spain was made the most of. Cavalcanti was flattered and caressed, 
the Guises were denounced as " Hispaniolised traitors," and the Queen's con- 
nection with the Protestants of Germany and Flanders boasted of ; whilst De 
Spes and his master were scornfully held up as an object-lesson of England's 
boldness and strength. De Spes, in his last letter to Alba before his embarka- 
tion, says that "Burghley has received certain threatening letters, and had 
informed the Queen that if I stay here during the trial of the prisoners the 
country will rise up in arms ; and he, timid, contemptible fellow that he is, 
commits so many absurdities that people are quite astonished." 



264 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

in Flanders he made a long report of his embassy, con- 
taining the following interesting appreciation of Burghley 
as he appeared to his greatest enemy : " The principal 
person in the Council is William Cecil, now Lord 
Burghley, a Knight of the Garter. He is a man of 
mean sort, but very astute, false, lying, and full of arti- 
fice. He is a great heretic, and such a clownish English- 
man as to believe that all the Christian princes joined 
together are not able to injure the sovereign of his 
country, and he therefore treats their ministers with 
great arrogance. This man manages the bulk of the 
business, and by means of his vigilance and craftiness, 
together with his utter unscrupulousness of word and 
deed, thinks to outwit the ministers of other princes, 
which to some extent he has hitherto succeeded in 
doing." 

Before De Spes was expelled, the efforts of Burghley, 
Walsingham, and De Foix had been successful in 
arranging the terms of a close political alliance between 
France and England. Elizabeth swore to Cavalcanti 
that she would never trust Spaniards again, and he might 
see how little she cared for the King of Spain by the 
way she had treated his Ambassador. She could, indeed, 
afford now to slight the most powerful monarch in the 
world ; for one of the counter-strokes to the Spanish- 
Papal plot had been the concentration in the Channel 
of a great fleet of Flemish and Huguenot privateers 
under the Count de la Mark, and during the winter a 
plan had been perfected for the seizure by the "beg- 
gars " of Brille, the key to Zeeland. The imposition in 
Flanders of the tax which ruined Spain had been the 
last straw, 1 and the whole country was ripe for revolt. 
For some time an arrangement had been in progress with 
Louis of Nassau, by which the Huguenots should invade 

1 The alcabala or tenth penny — ten per cent, on every sale. 






i 5 72] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 265 

Flanders over the French frontier, in the interest of the 
Flemish Protestants. However friendly Elizabeth might 
be with France, this was a proceeding which was sure to be 
looked upon by English statesmen with profound distrust; 
and Walsingham, writing to Cecil on the last day of 1571, 1 
says that he has been asked whether, in the event of the 
French entering Flanders, the Queen of England will 
take Zeeland, as the Flemings fear that the French may 
not be contented with Flanders. Some time before this, 
in September, Walsingham had urged Cecil to promote 
this invasion of Flanders by the French, as a means of 
keeping the Huguenots in power, as well as embar- 
rassing Spain. " If not," he says, " the Guises will bear 
sway, who will be so forward in preferring the conquest 
of Ireland, and the advancement of their niece to the 
crown of England, as the other side (i.e. the Huguenots) 
is contrariwise bent to prefer the conquest of Flanders." 
When the immediate danger from the Guises was over, 
however, the idea of a French invasion of Flanders 
could not be calmly endured without some correspond- 
ing move in English interests, and joint action in the 
Netherlands was suggested. It is assumed by Motley and 
most other historians that the capture of Brille by the 
" beggars " under La Mark early in April was quite unpre- 
meditated, but De Spes warned Alba that the affair was 
being planned in England at least six months before ; 2 
and the sending away from Dover of La Mark's fleet did 
not, as Motley surmises, arise alone from Elizabeth's fear 
of offending Spain — for that she had already done — but 
from the complaints of the Easterling merchants that their 
trade with England had become impossible whilst these 
freebooters of the seas lay off the coast. In any case, the 
surprise and seizure of Brille by the " beggars " once 
more gave Alba plenty to think about on his own side 

1 Foreign State Papers. 2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



266 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

of the Straits ; and England might, for the present, 
breathe freely again. 

It had been as necessary for Catharine de Medici as 
for Elizabeth to provide against the complete domina- 
tion of England and Scotland by a Spanish-Papal con- 
spiracy in favour of Mary Stuart, and she had seconded 
Walsingham strenuously in endeavouring to overcome 
Anjou's religious scruples against marrying Elizabeth. 
Anjou shifted like the wind, as he fell under the influ- 
ence of the Guises and his mother alternately. Some- 
times the match looked certain, and Catharine was 
effusive in her thanks to Burghley ; the next week it 
appeared hopeless. But the intrigue served its pur- 
pose, and kept the French Government friendly with 
Elizabeth during the critical time of the Spanish- 
Guisan conspiracy against her — a conspiracy which 
also threatened Catharine's influence in France. Burgh- 
ley himself seems to have been at a loss to understand 
Elizabeth's real intentions at the time ; but it would 
appear that both he and Walsingham were in earnest 
in wishing for the Anjou match, of course with the safe- 
guards laid down in Cecil's several minutes on the matter ; 
but " the conferences," wrote the Secretary, " have as 
many variations as there are days." 

When at length it was seen that Anjou would no 
longer act as a party to the game, but was looking to 
the possibility of a marriage with Mary Stuart or with a 
Polish princess, the idea of the marriage of Elizabeth 
with his youngest brother, the Duke of Alengon, was 
again very cautiously brought up by Sir Thomas Smith 
and Killigrew, who were acting as English Ambassadors 
in France during Walsingham's illness. Alen^on was 
only a lad as yet, and could be used without loss of 
dignity as a stalking-horse until the treaty of close alli- 
ance was finally agreed upon between the two countries. 



1572] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 267 

The inevitable Guido Cavalcanti broached the matter to 
Burghley in January, as he was coming away from an 
interview with Elizabeth, and after some conference 
Burghley himself discussed the matter with the Queen. 
She was thirty-nine, and the suggested bridegroom was 
barely seventeen ; but she was full of curiosity as to the 
looks of the suitor, and distrustful about their respective 
ages. She asked Burghley how tall Alencon was. " About 
as tall as I am," replied the Secretary. " About as tall 
as your grandson, you mean," snapped her Majesty, 1 and 
so the colloquy ended for a time. On the 19th April 
1572 the draft treaty between England and France was 
signed at Blois. It provided that aid was to be given 
unofficially by both nations to the revolted Hollanders ; 
the fleet of Protestant privateers was to be sheltered and 
encouraged, and Huguenot Henry of Navarre was to 
marry the King's sister Margaret. The Protestants and 
politicians of France had thus for the moment triumphed 
all along the line ; the connection between England and 
France was closer than it had been for many years, 
and Elizabeth and Burghley could look back upon a 
great peril to their nation and their faith manfully met 
and astutely overcome. 

The Catholic party in England was now utterly 
prostrate. The Duke of Norfolk, condemned to death 
for treason, was respited again and again by the Queen, 
whilst he abjectly prevaricated, and threw the blame upon 
others. The Bishop of Ross and Barker, he said, had for- 
sworn him : he never meant to bring a foreign force to 
England to depose the Queen, and so forth. From the first, 
Burghley, who had always been Norfolk's friend, urged the 
Queen to let the law take its course. 2 He has been bitterly 

1 Correspondance de la Mothe Fenelon. 

2 Burghley writes to Walsingham, nth February 1572, an account of the 
Queen's vacillation about Norfolk's fate : " Suddenly on Sunday, late at night 



268 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

blamed for doing so ; but seeing the danger to which 
Norfolk's treason had reduced the realm, he would have 
failed in his duty as a First Minister if he had allowed 
any weakness or personal consideration to stand in the 
way of the just punishment for a great crime. Norfolk, 
though he was the most popular man and greatest noble 
in the realm, and still has many apologists, had plotted 
with the enemies of England to bring the country again 
under foreign tutelage for his own ambition, and it was 
right that he should suffer. 

That Burghley did not flinch in the case of a man 
with so many friends, is a proof of his rectitude and 
his courage. Though Norfolk himself must have 
known what his attitude was, his esteem for him was 
evidently not lessened. In the first letter he wrote to 
the Queen after his condemnation, 21st January 1572, 
he prays for "her Majesty's forgiveness for his mani- 
fold offences, that he may leave this vale of misery with 
a lighter heart and quieter conscience. He desires 
that Lord Burghley should act as guardian to his poor 
orphans," and he signs his letter, "Written by the 
woeful hand of a dead man, your Majesty's unworthy 
subject, Thomas Howard" ; 1 and when this prayer was 
granted, he again wrote to the Queen expressing "his 



the Queen's Majesty sent for me, and entered into a great misliking that the 
Duke should die next day, and said she was, and should be, disquieted ; and 
said she would have a new warrant made that night to the sheriffs to forbear, 
until they should hear further. God's will be fulfilled, and aid her Majesty 
to do herself good." (Walsingham Papers : Complete Ambassador). In 
another letter from Burghley to Walsingham a few week's earlier than this, 
he complains of the Queen's clemency : " The Queen's Majesty has always 
been a merciful lady, and by mercy she hath taken more harm than by justice, 
and yet she thinks she is more beloved in doing herself harm." And again : 
" Here is no small expectation whether the Duke shall die or continue pri- 
soner. I know not how to write, for I am here in my chamber subject to 
reports which are contrariwise." 
1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



1572] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 269 

comfort at hearing of her Majesty's intended goodness 
to his unfortunate brats, and that she had christened 
them with such an adopted father as Lord Burghley." * 
At length, when Parliament had added its pressure to 
that of her minister's, the Queen's real or pretended re- 
luctance to execute her near kinsman was overcome, 
and the Duke's head fell on Tower Hill, 2nd June, before 
the lamentations of a great populace, who loved him 
above any subject of the Queen. 

Less than a week afterwards Marshal Montmorenci, 
Paul de Foix, and a splendid embassy arrived in Eng- 
land for the purpose of formally ratifying the treaty of 
alliance between England and France, a corresponding 
embassy from England under Lord Lincoln being in 
France for a similar purpose. The courts vied with 
each other in their splendid entertainments. The 
Frenchmen with forty followers were lodged in Somerset 
House. At Whitehall, at Windsor (where Montmorenci 
received the Garter), at Leicester House, and at Cecil 
House, sumptuous banquets were given, followed by 
masques, balls, and tourneys. There was much talk 
about the Duke of Alengon, but no decided answer 
given by Elizabeth to the hints of marriage, which, 
indeed, was not now so pressing a matter for her as it 
had been. When the Frenchmen had taken leave, 
Burghley sent to Walsingham an interesting letter giving 
some account of the embassy, by which it is clear that 
the Queen still desired to keep up the talk of the 
marriage, in view of a possible need to draw still closer 
to the French. " I am willed," he writes, " to require 
you to use all good means to understand what you can 
of the Duke of Alengon, his age in certainty, of his 
stature, his conditions, his inclination in religion, his 
devotion this way, his followers and servitors : hereof 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



270 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

her Majesty seeketh speedily to be advertised, that she 
may resolve before the month." He says, that for his 
part, he can see no great dislike of the idea, except in 
the matter of age, and hints at getting Calais as the 
young Prince's dower. " If somewhat be not advised 
to recompense the opinion that her Majesty conceiveth, 
as that she should be misliked to make choice of so 
young a prince, I doubt the end." 1 When, however, 
Lincoln came back from France loaded with plate and 
jewels, and full of praise of the gallantry of Alencon, 
the Queen became somewhat warmer, and Walsingham 
for weeks to come was bombarded with minute ques- 
tions as to the personal qualities, and particularly as to 
the pock-marked visage, of the suitor. 

There was but one more of the great conspirators 
against England to deal with. Norfolk had deservedly 
died the death of a traitor, and those who had supported 
him were either dead or lingering sufferers in prison, the 
disloyal Catholics were despairing, Spain had received 
its answer by the expulsion of De Spes and the renewal 
of the war in the Netherlands, whilst Coligny and the 
Huguenots rode rough-shod over the Guises and their 
friends. But the very spring-head of the conspiracy 
remained untouched. A commission was appointed in 
June to formulate charges against Mary Stuart herself, 2 
and in Parliament it was resolved that she was unworthy 
to succeed to the English crown. But Elizabeth again 
allowed her personal feeling to stand in the way of her 
patriotic duty, or, as some would prefer to say, desired to 
fix upon others the responsibility of a grave act against 
her own order and kin. Burghley, in his letter already 
quoted, written at the end of June to Walsingham, says : 

1 Walsingham Papers. 

2 A copy of the charges with Lord Burghley's signature erased is in 
Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



i 5 72] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 271 

"Now for Parliament : I cannot write patiently : all that 
we laboured for, and with full consent brought to fashion, 
I mean a law to make the Scottish Queen unable and 
unworthy of succession of the crown, was by her 
Majesty neither assented to nor rejected, but deferred 
until the feast of All Saints ; but what all other good and 
wise men think thereof, you may guess. Some here have, 
as it seemeth, abused their favour about her Majesty, to 
make herself her most enemy. God amend them." x 

A fortnight after this letter was written Burghley was 
made Lord Treasurer of England in place of the Marquis 
of Winchester, who had recently died. The work and 
strain of the Secretaryship had gravely affected Burghley's 
health, and early in the previous April he had been so 
ill that his life was despaired of. De Guaras, the mer- 
chant who acted informally as Spanish agent, says that 
the Queen and most of the Councillors visited him, in 
the belief that his state was desperate. 2 For some time 
he had been begging for permission to rest, but until 
the great matters in hand were settled, this was impos- 

1 There was in the Parliament in question a strong Puritan element. An 
attempt was made by it to alter the rites of the Established Church in the 
Genevan direction, which Elizabeth regarded as an interference with her 
prerogative ; and the pressure put upon her to consent to the trial of Mary 
Stuart led her to dismiss the Parliament, which did not meet again till 1575. 
When Parliament did meet again, the clemency of the Queen towards Mary 
was made a source of complaint by the Puritan Wentworth, who was im- 
prisoned for his undutiful speech. For the consultation and report of the 
joint committee of the two Houses in 1572 respecting Mary Stuart, see 
D'Ewes' "Compleat Journal." 

2 It is probable that on this occasion the Queen made the celebrated 
remark to Burghley's servant. He told her Majesty, who wore a very high 
head-dress, that it would be necessary to stoop to enter the door of the 
chamber where the sick man lay. " For your master only will I stoop," 
said the Queen, " but not for the King of Spain." It may be worth while to 
repeat De Guaras' remark when giving an account of this sickness of Burghley. 
The latter had been showing an inclination to come to terms with Spain 
about the seizures (it was shortly before the French alliance was signed), and 
his illness had interrupted the negotiations. " If this man dies," writes 



272 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

sible. The sky over England had once more become 
cleared, and the great minister could hand over to his 
old friend Sir Thomas Smith the Secretaryship, in which 
he had done such signal service to the State. 

The day after the elevation of Burghley to the 
Treasurership, the Queen started on one of the stately 
progresses which caused so much delight and enthu- 
siasm to all her subjects but those who had to entertain 
her, except perhaps Burghley and his rival Leicester, 
who were both honoured during this summer with a 
visit from the sovereign. Burghley's entry of the great 
event comes curtly enough in his diary after the memo- 
randum of his new appointment, thus : — 

" 1572. July 15. Lord Burghley made Lord Treasurer 
of England." 

" July 22. The Queen's Majesty at Theobalds." x 

Elizabeth had visited Theobalds in 1564 and 1571. 
On this occasion her stay extended over three days, 
and the domestic biographer of Burghley thus refers 
to this amongst other visits : " His Lordship's extra- 
ordinary chardg in enterteynment of the Quene was 
greater to him than to anie of her subjects, for he en- 
terteyned her at his house twelve several tymes, which 
cost him two or three thousand pounds each tyme. . . . 
But his love for his Sovereign, and joy to enterteyn her 
and her traine, was so greate, as he thought no troble, 
care, nor cost too much, and all too little." 

De Guaras, " it will be very unfortunate for the purpose which he declared 
to me. ... It is true that hitherto he has undoubtedly been the enemy of 
peace and tranquillity, for his own bad ends ; but I am convinced that he is 
now well disposed, which means that the Queen and Council are so, for he, 
and no one else, rules the whole affairs of the State. God grant that if it be 
for His service he may live." (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. ii.) 

1 These are the dates in the diary, but they do not quite agree with the 
entries in the little Perpetual Calendar at Hatfield, which run thus : — 

" 19 July 1572. W. Cecill admiss. Thesaurus Angl. 

"19 July 1572. Quene's Majestie at Theobalds, 5 to 6." 



1572] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 273 

Whilst Elizabeth slowly made her way from one great 
house to another, by Gorhambury, 1 Dunstable, Woburn, 2 
and so to Kenilworth, the correspondence on the negotia- 
tions for the Alengon match became warmer and warmer. 
Agents and messengers speeded backwards and forwards 
with portraits and amiable trifles, particularly from the 
side of England. 

There was a good reason for this. Before even the 
treaty of alliance was signed, Burghley had deplored that 
Charles IX. and his mother were cooling in the agree- 
ment for France and England jointly to aid the Flemish 
rebels. The Pope and the Emperor were trying their 
hardest to withdraw Charles and his mother from the 
compromise into which he had entered with Elizabeth ; 
and already the young King and Catharine de Medici 
were discovering that Coligny and the Huguenots, when 
they had the upper hand, could be as domineering and 
tyrannical as the Guises themselves. Paris was in seething 
discontent that the beloved Guises were in disgrace, and 
Charles found his throne tottering. To add to his fears 
from the Catholics, the Huguenot force that had entered 
Flanders under Genlis had been routed and destroyed 
by the Spaniards (19th July), and it was clear to Catharine 
and her son, that if they did not promptly cut themselves 
free from Elizabeth's attack on Spanish interests, they 
would be dragged down when the Huguenots fell. The 
very day that the news of Genlis' defeat arrived in Paris, 

1 A curious letter from Sir Nicholas Bacon to Burghley respecting this 
visit is inLansdowne MSS., 14 (printed by Ellis), in which he prays for advice 
and guidance, " ffor in very deede no man is more rawe in such a matter than 
myself" (12th July 1572. Gorhambury). 

2 There is another letter in the same collection from the Earl of Bedford to 
Burghley, begging him to arrange that the Queen should not stay at Woburn 
longer than two nights and a day. " I pray god the Rowmes and Lodgings 
there may be to her Majesty's contentation for the tyme. . . . They should 
be better than they be" (16th July 1572. Russell House). 

S 



274 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

a young noble named La Mole was sent flying to Eng- 
land, ostensibly to confer with the Queen on the Alengon 
match. There was no particular reason for roughly 
breaking off that, and so offending Elizabeth ; but the 
sending of a mere schoolboy like La Mole with only 
vague instructions about the proposed joint action in 
Flanders would show that Charles IX. did not intend to 
take any further responsibility in that direction. 

La Mole arrived in London on 27th July, and had 
a long midnight interview with Burghley at the French 
Embassy. He ostensibly only came from Alengon — not 
from the King — and when, a few days afterwards, he 
saw the Queen privately at Kenilworth, though he was 
full of fine lovelorn compliments from Alengon, he could 
only say from the King that the latter could not openly 
declare himself in the matter of Flanders. He suggested 
prudence, and fears of a league of Catholic powers against 
him. He talked about the strength of Portugal and 
Savoy, and generally cried off from his bargain. This 
was ill news for Elizabeth, for there were hundreds of 
Englishmen in arms in Holland, and brave Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert and his band were besieging Ter Goes. 
But the English Queen made the best of it, and sought 
to redress matters by pushing the Alengon match more 
warmly than ever, and petting and caressing La Mole, 
who accompanied her on her progress towards Windsor. 
Burghley and the experienced Smith seem to have been 
as firmly convinced as } r oung La Mole himself, that the 
Queen was in earnest, and would really, at last, make 
up her mind to marry Alen^on. In her conversations 
with La Mole and Fenelon she smoothed away all diffi- 
culties. Walsingham had made a great mistake, she 
said, in declaring that Alen^on's youth was an insuper- 
able difficulty ; and much more to the same effect. But 
it is curious that all this artless prattle, all this coy 



157^] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 275 

coquetry of the Queen, so spontaneous in appearance, 
had in substance been carefully previously drafted by 
Burghley, and the drafts are still at Hatfield. Whilst 
Charles IX. was hesitating and looking askance at the 
dominant Huguenots, the latter were assuring Burghley 
and Walsingham that all would be well directly. Henry 
of Navarre was to be married to the Princess Margaret, 
and this would give them a pretext for gathering so 
strong a force of their party that they could make the 
King do as they pleased. 1 

But Elizabeth and the Huguenots had no monopoly 
of cunning, and whilst the billing and cooing with La 
Mole went on, the massacre of St. Bartholomew was 
being secretly planned, and every effort was being made 
by the French King to draw England into a position of 
overt hostility to Spain, whilst he remained unpledged. 
The Ambassador, Fenelon, and young La Mole, left the 
Queen, and returned to London on the 27th August. 
On the same day there arrived at Rye two couriers from 
Paris, one from Walsingham to the Queen and Burghley, 
the other to the French Ambassador. The French 
courier was detained, and his papers sent forward with 
Walsingham's despatches to the Queen. The news of 
the great crime of St. Bartholomew fell upon Elizabeth 
and her court like a death-knell ; for it seemed that at 
last the threatened crusade against Protestantism had 
begun, and that England was struck at as well as the 
Huguenots. All rejoicings were stopped, mourning garb 
was assumed, and the gay devices of masques and 
mummeries gave way to anxious conferences and plans 
for defence. Affrighted Protestants by the thousand 
came flying across the Channel in any craft that would 

1 Spanish State Papers, 22nd July 1572, a month before St. Bartholomew. 
If this be true, it to some extent confirms the subsequent allegations of the 
Catholics as to a plot of the Huguenots. 



276 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

sail ; from mouth to mouth in England ran the dreadful 
story of unprovoked and wanton slaughter, and on every 
side the old English feeling of hatred and distrust of 
the false Frenchmen came uppermost again. On the 
7th September, La Mothe Fenelon was received by the 
Queen at Woodstock in dead silence, and surrounded by 
all the signs of mourning. He made the best of a bad 
matter : talked of a plot of Coligny and the Huguenots 
to seize the Louvre, urged that the massacre was un- 
premeditated, and hoped that the friendship between 
France and England would continue uninterrupted. But 
Elizabeth knew that such a friendship could only be a 
snare for her whilst the Guises were paramount, and she 
dismissed the Ambassador with a plain indication of her 
opinion. 

Two days afterwards Burghley penned a long letter 
from the Council to Walsingham, dictating the steps 
to be taken for the protection of English interests ; and 
he accompanied it by a private note, in which the Lord 
Treasurer's own view is frankly set forth. " I see," he 
says, "the devil is suffered by Almighty God for our 
sins to be strong in following the persecution of Christ's 
members, and therefore we are not only vigilant of our 
own defence against such trayterous attempts as lately 
have been put in use there in France, but also to call 
ourselves to repentance. . . . The King assures her 
Majesty that the navy prepared by Strozzi shall not 
in any way endamage her Majestie ; but we have great 
cause in these times to doubt all fair speeches, and 
therefore we do presently put all the sea-coasts in 
defence, and mean to send her Majesty's navy to sea 
with speed, and so to continue until we see further 
whereunto to trust." * 

Not many days after the massacre, Catharine de 

1 Foreign State Papers ; in extenso in Digges. 



157^] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 277 

Medici saw the mistake she had made in allowing the 
Guises a free hand, and she and the King did their 
best by protestations to Walsingham, and through 
Fenelon and Castelnau de la Mauvissiere, to draw 
closer to Elizabeth again. Alen^on did much more. 
He went to Walsingham, swore vengeance upon the 
murderers, and expressed his intention of escaping 
from court and secretly flying to England. By an 
emissary of his own he sent an extravagant love-letter 
to the Queen, and ostentatiously took the Huguenot 
side, whilst Anjou was on the side of the League. 
Elizabeth did not wish to break with France, for her 
safety once more depended upon avoiding isolation ; 
but she was still deeply distrustful. Smith, in sending 
the Queen's answer to Walsingham, quaintly defines her 
attitude towards the French : " You may perceive by 
her Majesty's answer, that she will not refuse the inter- 
view nor marriage, but yet she cometh near to them tarn 
timido et suspense pede, that they may have good cause to 
doubt. The answer to De la Mothe is addulced so much 
as may, for she would have it so. You have a busie 
piece of work to decypher that which in words is de- 
signed to the extremitie, in deeds is more than manifest ; 
neither you shall open the one, nor shall they cloak the 
other. The best is, thank God, we stand upon our guard, 
nor I trust shall be taken and killed asleep, as Coligny 
was. The greatest matter for her Majestie, and our 
safety and defence, is earnestly of us attempted, nor yet 
achieved, nor utterly in despair, but rather in hope." x 

For the next few months this firm attitude of watch- 
fulness was maintained, whilst the outward demonstra- 
tions of friendship between Catharine and Elizabeth 
became gradually more cordial, thanks largely to the 

1 Smith to Walsingham, 27th September (Foreign State Papers ; in 
exlenso in Digges). 



278 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

influence in the English court of the special envoy 
Castelnau de la Mauvissiere. Elizabeth consented to 
act as sponsor for the French King's infant daughter ; 
Alen^on's envoy, Maisonfleur, with the knowledge of 
Burghley, sent to his master a plan for his escape to 
England with Navarre and Conde, and assured him that 
the Queen would marry him if he came. But all this 
diplomatic finesse did not for a moment stay the grim 
determination of the Queen and her Council to provide 
against treachery, from whatever quarter it might come. 
All along the coast the country stood on guard. Ports- 
mouth, Plymouth, the Thames, and Harwich were 
swarming with shipping, armed to the teeth for the 
succour of stern Protestant Rochelle against the Catho- 
lics, and to aid the Netherlanders in their struggle. 1 
The Huguenots of Guienne, Languedoc, and Gascony 
had recovered somewhat from the shock of St. Bartholo- 
mew, and were arming for their defence ; and to them 
also went English money, arms, and encouragement. 
At Elizabeth's court the Vidame de Chartres and the 
Count de Montgomerie were honoured guests and busy 
agents, whilst in France the young Princes of Navarre 
and Conde were daily being pledged deeper to the cause 
of Protestantism and England. The German princes, 
too, as profoundly shocked at the treacherous massacre 
as Elizabeth herself, drew nearer to the Queen, who 
was now regarded throughout Europe as the head of 
the Protestant confederacy. 

It was soon seen that, though St. Bartholomew had 
given more power to the Guises, it had also strengthened 

1 When Orange entered Brabant in September he sent an envoy to 
England to ask for aid. An agent at once started from London with ;£ 16,000 
in money, and a few days afterwards ^"30,000 in bills on Hamburg were 
sent, for which the Prince wrote thanking Burghley. Large quantities of 
stores were also shipped from England, and a force of 12,000 men collected 
at the ports in case of emergency. 



1572] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 279 

and consolidated the reformers rather than destroyed 
them. Month after month Anjou, at the head of the 
Catholic royal army, cast his men fruitlessly against the 
impregnable walls of Rochelle, well supplied as the 
town was with stores by Montgomerie's fleet from Eng- 
land, until at last in the spring of 1573 it was seen by 
Catharine and her sons that they had failed to crush 
the reformers of France, and they were glad to make 
terms with the heroic Rochellais, where the besiegers, 
plague-stricken, starving, and disheartened, were in far 
worse case than the beleaguered. Anjou, to his brothers' 
and mother's delight, was elected to the vacant throne 
of Poland, and a full amnesty was signed for the Hugue- 
nots (June 1573) ; complete religious liberty being ac- 
corded in the towns of Rochelle, Montauban, and Nismes, 
whilst private Protestant worship was allowed through- 
out France. 



CHAPTER XI 

1572-1576 

One of the first effects of the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
mew was an approach on the part of Burghley to the 
Spanish agent in England. The object probably was 
to keep in touch and to learn what was going on, whilst 
arousing the jealousy of the French, and, above all, to 
reopen English trade with Flanders and Spain. In any 
case, the cordiality of so great a personage as the Lord 
Treasurer quite turned the head of simple-minded, vain 
Antonio de Guaras, who suddenly found himself treated 
as an important diplomatist, and for the rest of his life 
tried, but disastrously, to live up to the character. 1 Soon 
after the expulsion of De Spes, one of Burghley's agents 
had opened up communications with De Guaras, which 
resulted in an interview between the latter and the Lord 
Treasurer. The minister was graciousness itself, and 
quite dazzled the merchant. There was nothing, he 
assured him, that he desired more than an agreement 
with Spain on all points ; and though it all came to 
nothing at the time, and shortly afterwards the Flemish 
Commissioners were curtly dismissed, a letter was handed 
to Guaras late in August 1572 to be sent to Alba, making 
professions of willingness to negotiate for a reopening of 
trade, and to withdraw the English troops from Flanders. 
Before the reply came in October the massacre of St. 
Bartholomew had taken place, and when De Guaras 

1 See his letters in Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth; and also "Antonio 
de Guaras," by Richard Garnett, LLD. 

280 



i 5 72] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 281 

went to Burghley at Hampton Court with a letter from 
Alba he found him all smiles. "The Queen was only 
remarking yesterday/' said he, "that she wondered An- 
tonio de Guaras did not come to court with a reply to 
the message offering to withdraw the Englishmen who 
were helping the rebels." They were only sent there, 
said Burghley, to prevent Frenchmen from gaining a 
footing. He was overjoyed to receive Alba's kind letter, 
and took it to the Queen at once, though she had 
already sickened with the smallpox, which a day or two 
afterwards declared itself. He hoped, he said, that God 
would pardon those who had caused the dissension 
between the two countries ; and the Queen was most 
willing to come to terms. He expressed delight at the 
reported successes of Alba. He compared Spaniards 
with Frenchmen, greatly to the disadvantage of the 
latter, and u he said more against the French than I 
did, speaking with great reverence of our King, and of 
so courageous a Prince, which were the words he applied 
to your Excellency " (Alba). 

The delighted merchant was pressed to stay to supper 
to meet such great personages as the Earl of Sussex, the 
Lord Chamberlain, and others ; and the next day he was 
in conference with Burghley for hours, with the result 
that the latter consented to draw up a new draft treaty 
for the reopening of trade, one of the clauses of which 
was to touch upon the tender subject of the treatment 
extended by the Inquisition to English merchants and 
mariners in Spain. Burghley hinted to De Guaras that 
some of the Council were against an accord, but he 
persuaded him that his own feelings were all in favour 
of a renewal of the close understanding with the House 
of Burgundy. De Guaras was backwards and forwards 
to court for weeks, more charmed than ever with the Lord 
Treasurer's amiability. " It is," he says, " undoubted 



282 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1572 

that a great amount of dissension exists in the Council, 
some being friendly to our side, and others to the 
French ; but the best Councillor of all of them is Lord 
Burghley, as he follows the tendency of the Queen, 
which is towards concord. As he is supreme in the 
country and in the Queen's estimation, in all the import- 
ant Councils which were held during the days that I 
was at court, he, with his great eloquence, having right 
on his side, was able to persuade those who were 
opposed to him. He assured me privately that he had 
gained over the great majority of his opponents, and 
especially the Earl of Leicester, who has always been 
on the side of the French." * Burghley could be very 
persuasive and talkative when it suited him, as it very 
rarely did. The French, he said, were most anxious 
for a close alliance, but the Queen and himself set but 
small store on " these noisy French and Italians." 

A Spanish spy in London, unknown to De Guaras, 
scornfully wrote to Alba that Lord Burghley was playing 
with De Guaras ; and before many weeks had passed, 
the latter himself had begun to doubt. Burghley passed 
him in his ante-room three times without so much as 
noticing him. "Some great plot against the Spaniards 
in Flanders " was hatching, he was sure ; " and in one 
moment they decided that their false news was of more 
importance than our friendship." " Whilst this Govern- 
ment exists, no good arrangement will be made, as the 
Queen only desires it from fear, and the rest will oppose 
it on religious grounds." When De Guaras saw the Lord 
Treasurer later in November (1572), grave doubts were 
expressed about the bona fides of Philip, much to the 
Spaniard's indignation. Burghley said he was still strongly 
in favour of an arrangement, because the French, who 
wished the English wool trade to go to France instead 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



157^] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 283 

of Flanders, were so shifty, and could not be trusted. 
The Queen would be glad, too, to mediate between 
Spain and the Prince of Orange. Thus Burghley played 
on the hopes and fears of Spain; but through the whole 
negotiation it was clear that the objects were — first, if 
possible, to reopen the ports for English trade on pro- 
fitable terms ; * and, secondly, to keep Spain in hand, 
pending the development of events in France, and the 
strengthening of Orange for his forthcoming campaign. 

In the meanwhile Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his 
800 Englishmen were recalled from Flanders, and the 
elaborate pretence made that he was in disgrace for 
having gone thither at all against the Queen's wish ; and 
other demonstrations were made, especially by Burghley, 
of a desire to agree on friendly conditions with Spain. 
As weeks passed without any reply coming from Alba to 
the draft treaty, Burghley grew distrustful, and, as De 
Guaras complains, coldly passed him without recognising 
him. At last, late in December, he sent for the Spaniard 
and made a speech, which, De Guaras says, sounded as if 
it had been studied. " He hoped," he said, " that the 
good-will of himself and his friends would be recognised. 
Some of the Councillors thought that De Guaras had been 
playing them false, 2 and his (Burghley's) party was much 



1 How deeply interested Burghley was in the question of trade is seen in 
the active efforts he was making at this time to establish the Flemish fugitives 
in various parts of England, to exercise the handicrafts in which they excelled. 
During the negotiations with De Guaras, he was establishing a community of 
cloth-workers in his own town of Stamford, lodging them at first in a house 
of his own, giving them a church and aiding them with money. (Dr. 
Cunningham's "Alien Emigrants in England"; State Papers, Domestic; 
and Strype's Parker.) 

3 Burghley, on a previous occasion, had frightened De Guaras out of his 
wits by charging him with conspiring against the Queen. Throughout the 
whole negotiation the Spaniards were alternately flattered and threatened. 
De Guaras himself was one day overjoyed with Burghley's amiability and 
admiration for all things and men Spanish ; and the next day cast into the 



284 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

annoyed that no answer had come, especially about the 
simultaneous opening of the ports." All the while the 
vigorous support of Orange's preparations went on ; 
money, men, and arms flowed over in abundance (early 
in 1573) ; and the Dutch agents were in England urging 
Elizabeth openly to take Holland and Zeeland under 
her protection, and to lend national countenance to the 
struggle against Spain. She was not prepared for this 
yet, for France was under the influence of the Guises, 
and their intrigues in Scotland left her no rest. But 
Alba was afraid of the bare possibility of a great Pro- 
testant league of English, Germans, and Huguenots, in 
favour of Orange ; and his pride was humbled more 
by this than by professions of friendship. The result 
of Burghley's negotiations through De Guaras, and the 
aiding of Orange, was that in the summer of 1573 the 
Flemish and Spanish ports were once more opened to 
English trade, on terms immensely favourable to Eng- 
land, 1 since she obtained a free market for her cloth, 
whilst she kept the great bulk of the enormous amount 
of Spanish property which Elizabeth had seized five 
years previously. This was a greater exemplification 
of the impotence of Philip, even than the expulsion of 
De Spes. All the world could see now that, much as 
his Inquisition might harry individual Englishmen, the 
King could neither defend nor avenge the injuries done 
to himself ; and was obliged to overlook the presence of 

depths of gloom, by haughty indifference, or hints at punishment for treason, 
of which the poor man was as yet quite innocent ; or, again, by talk of the 
diversion of all English trade to France or Hamburg, the abundant aid being 
sent to Orange, or the welcoming of the Dutch privateers into English ports. 
The negotiation and its result are a good specimen of Lord Burghley's 
diplomatic methods. 

1 The documents relating to the protracted negotiations with regard to the 
seizures, and the resumption of trade, will be found in the Cotton MSS., 
Galba ciii., civ., cv., cvi., and Vesp. cxiii. 



1573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 285 

armed English regiments on the side of his rebellious 
subjects, for the sake of retaining the profit brought 
to his dominions by English commerce. Burghley had 
at all events established one fact, namely, that, for the 
present, Philip alone could do no harm. 

The struggles between the Protestants and Catholics 
in Scotland had continued almost without interruption 
since the death of Murray. Mary's friends were still 
numerous and strong amongst the aristocratic and landed 
classes, and were supported, as we have seen, by Spanish 
and papal money, as well as by Guisan intrigue. The 
Regent Lennox had been murdered by the Hamiltons 
(September 1571), and his successor (Mar) had died of 
poison or a broken heart (November 1572) ; but with 
the advent of Morton, a man of stronger fibre, the Pro- 
testant cause became more aggressive, and the English 
influence over Scotland more decided. Shortly before 
this happened, when the effects of St. Bartholomew were 
still weighing on the English court, and it was known 
that Catharine de Medici and her son were as busy with 
the Archbishop of Glasgow in supporting the Hamiltons 
and Gordons as was Cardinal Lorraine himself, secret 
instructions were given to Killigrew, the English Am- 
bassador in Scotland, to take a step which under any 
other circumstances would have been inexcusable. The 
secret instructions are drafted in Burghley's hand, and 
more obloquy has been piled upon his memory in con- 
sequence of them than for any other action in his 
career; even his thick-and-thin apologist, Dr. Nares, 
confessing that he could only look upon Killigrew's 
orders " with feelings of disgust and horror." Killigrew's 
open mission was to reconcile the King's party with 
those who championed the cause of his mother, and 
especially with Kirkaldy of Grange and Lethington, who 
still held Edinburgh Castle ; but his secret instructions 



286 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

were to a different effect. He was to warn the Protest- 
ants that a second St. Bartholomew might be intended 
in Scotland — not by any means an improbable sugges- 
tion, considering who were the promoters of the original 
massacre. " But you are also chosen to deal in a third 
matter of far greater moment." The continuance of 
the Queen of Scots in England, he is told, is con- 
sidered dangerous, and it is deemed desirable that she 
should be sent to Scotland and delivered to the Regent 
(Mar), " if it might be wrought that they themselves 
should secretly require it, with good assurance to deal 
with her by way of justice, that she should receive that 
which she hath deserved, whereby no further peril should 
ensue from her escaping, or by setting her up again. 
Otherwise the Council of England will never assent to 
deliver her out of the realm ; and for assurance, none 
can suffice but hostages of good value — that is, some 
children of the Regent and the Earl of Morton/' l The 
suggestion was not a chivalrous or a generous one. It 
meant nothing less than handing over the unfortunate 
Mary to her enemies to be executed, and so to rid 
Elizabeth of her troublesome guest without responsi- 
bility. Killigrew was Burghley's brother-in-law, and 
the two, with Leicester and the Queen, were the only 
persons acquainted with the intention. 

On his arrival in Edinburgh the new envoy found 
the Protestants profoundly moved by the news of the 
massacre in Paris ; Knox, paralysed and on the brink of 
the grave, used his last remaining spark of life to de- 
nounce the Guises and the Papists who had forged the 
murder plot against the people of God. Killigrew found 
Morton ready and eager to help in the sacrifice of Mary, 
but Mar held back ; and Burghley and Leicester wrote, 

1 Hatfield Papers ; m extenso in Murdin ; also State Papers, Scotland. 



1573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 287 

urging speed in the matter. 1 When the terms of the Scots 
at last were sent to Burghley, it was seen that, though 
they were willing to have Mary killed, they would not 
relieve Elizabeth of the responsibility. 2 The death of 
Mar put an end for a time to the negotiation, which was 
never seriously undertaken again, as it was clear that the 
Scots would drive too hard a bargain to suit Elizabeth. 

It is my province to explain facts rather than to 
apologise for them, and the explanation of the plan 
to cause Mary to be judicially murdered in Scotland 
must be sought in the panic which seized upon the 
Protestants after St. Bartholomew. The massacre was 
generally believed to be only a part of a plan for the 
universal extirpation of the reformers, in which it was 
known that Mary Stuart's friends and relatives were the 
prime movers, and one of the main objects was repre- 
sented to be the raising of Mary to the throne of a 
Catholic Great Britain. So long as this belief existed, 
no step was inexcusable that aimed at frustrating so 
diabolical and widespread a conspiracy. That Burghley 
himself was not sensible of any turpitude in the matter 
may be seen from a letter written by him to Walsingham 
on the 14th January 1573, begging him to discover the 

1 See letters in Cotton MSS., Caligula, ciii. 

2 The terms were — that the hostages should be delivered within four hours 
of the surrender of Mary ; that James should be taken under the protection of 
Elizabeth, and his rights remain intact, and be recognised by the English 
Parliament ; that a defensive alliance should be concluded between the two 
countries ; that the Earls of Bedford, Huntingdon, and Essex should be 
present at the Queen's execution with a force of 3000 men, and immediately 
afterwards join the King's troops to reduce Edinburgh Castle, which should 
then be delivered to the Regent ; and, finally, that all arrears of pay owing to 
the Scottish army should be paid by England. The Spanish agents attributed 
the failure of Killigrew's mission to the efforts of De Croc, the French 
Ambassador in Scotland. Elizabeth told the latter, when she saw him in 
London in October, that she was well aware of all his plots in Scotland. 
Her uneasiness at the time was increased by the news of the arrival in Paris 
of Cardinal Orsini, a papal envoy with a fresh plan for the release of Mary. 



288 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

author of a book printed in Paris, in which he and 
Bacon are scurrilously accused of plans against Norfolk 
and Mary. " God amend his spirit/' he says, referring 
to the author, " and confound his malice. As for my 
part, if I have any such malicious or malignant spirit, 
God presently so confound my body to ashes and my 
soul to perpetual torment in hell." l 

How soon Catharine de Medici and her son regretted 
the false step of St. Bartholomew is seen by their attitude 
towards England early in the following year (1573). The 
Archbishop of Glasgow was plainly told that no more 
help could be given to his mistress, Cardinal Lorraine 
failed ignominiously to draw France into renewed activity 
on behalf of the League, and Charles IX. considered it 
necessary to apologise to Elizabeth for the presence in 
his court of the special papal envoy already referred to. 
It was seen also that the blood and iron policy of Alba 
had ended in failure : the revolt in the Netherlands was 
stronger than ever, Holland was entirely in the hands of 
Orange, and most of the Catholic provinces of Flanders 
even had broken from their Spanish allegiance. Under 
these circumstances it seemed possible that the secular 
dream of Frenchmen might eventually come to pass, and 
the fine harbours and busy towns of Belgium might fall 
to the share of France. But this could only be if she 
had a close understanding and made common cause 
with England. So once more the Alengon marriage was 
vigorously pushed to the front by Catharine. In Febru- 
ary the French Ambassador saw Elizabeth, and formally 
prayed her to give an answer whether she would marry 
the Prince or not. If she would only let them know her 
pleasure now, the King and Queen-mother would trouble 
her no more. It was a good opportunity, and Elizabeth 

1 State Papers, Foreign. See also Burghley's letters to Copley. Rox- 
burghe Club. 



i 5 73] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 289 

made the most of it. Fair terms must be given to the 
Huguenots in Rochelle, she said, and on condition that 
this was done, she would give an answer about Alengon 
through Lord Burghley. On the 18th February the Lord 
Treasurer made his formal speech. The Queen would 
never marry a man she had never seen. If the Prince 
liked to come over, even secretly, he would be welcome ; 
but in any case an interview had better precede the 
discussion of religion, because if the lovers did not 
fancy each other, the question of conscience would be 
a convenient pretext for breaking off the negotiation ; 
but still no public exercise of Catholic worship must be 
expected. When Burghley sent to Walsingham a copy 
of his speech, he added for his private information : 
" I see the imminent perils to this State, and . . . the 
success {i.e. the succession) of the crown manifestly 
uncertain, or rather so manifestly prejudicial to the state 
of religion, that I cannot but still persist in seeking 
marriage for her Majesty, and finding no way that is 
liking to her but this of the Duke, I do force myself to 
pursue it with desire, and do fancy myself with imagina- 
tions that if he do come hither her Majesty would not 
refuse him. ... If I am deceived, yet for the time it 
easeth me to imagine that such a sequel may follow." 1 
This was uncertain enough ; but Walsingham was even 
less encouraging. He was sick of the whole hollow 
business ; profoundly distrustful of the French ; and, 
moreover, was a friend of Leicester, who constantly 
plied him with letters deprecating the match. This, 
then, is how he managed cleverly to stand in with 
Burghley whilst serving Leicester. " Touching my pri- 
vate opinion of the marriage, the great impediment that 
I find in the same is the contentment of the eye. The 
gentleman, sure, is void of any good favour, besides the 

1 Foreign State Papers ; in extenso in Digges. 

T 



290 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

blemish of the small pocks. Now, when I weigh the 
same with the delicateness of her Majesty's eye, and 
considering also that there are some about her in credit, 
who in respect of their particular interests, have neither 
regard for her Majesty, nor to the preservation of our 
country from ruine, and will rather increase the misliking 
by defacing him than by dutifully laying before her the 
necessity of marriage ... I hardly think there will ever 
grow any liking. . . . Whether this marriage be sincerely 
meant here or not is a hard point to judge ... in my 
opinion I think rather no than yea." x This was almost 
the last letter written by Walsingham as Ambassador. 
He was recalled, to be shortly afterwards appointed 
joint-Secretary of State with Sir Thomas Smith, with 
the intention of still further relieving Burghley from 
routine labour ; and Dr. Dale, as Ambassador in Paris, 
kept alive the ridiculous, and frequently insincere, dis- 
cussion of the marriage of Elizabeth and Alencon. 2 

Burghley's labours and anxieties were not con- 
fined to foreign affairs. His interest in the uniformity 
and discipline of the Anglican Church was unceasing, 
and especially in connection with his Chancellorship of 
Cambridge University, gave him endless anxiety. The 
vestments controversy had now widened and deepened. 
The famous tract called " An Admonition to Parliament " 
had been presented to the Parliament of 1572 by Cart- 
wright ; and its violence in a Puritan direction had pro- 
voked a controversy, which, at the period now under 
consideration (1573), had developed on one side into 
a bitter antagonism to prelacy, and even sacerdotalism 
in all its forms. Both parties appealed to Burghley. 
He made a speech in the Star Chamber which left no 

1 Foreign State Papers ; in extenso in Digges. 

2 The progress of each stage in the complicated business is related in 
the author's " Courtships of Queen Elizabeth." 



1573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 291 

doubt as to his attitude, if any such ever existed, on the 
point. The Queen, he said, was determined to have the 
laws obeyed. No innovation of ritual or practice would 
be permitted. If any of the " novelists " were under the 
impression that departures from the rules laid down 
would remain unpunished, he disabused their minds. A 
Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge, named Chark, violently 
attacked the hierarchy from the University pulpits, and 
was admonished. He persisted, and was ejected from his 
Fellowship. Another Cambridge man, Edward Dering, 
Lecturer at St. Paul's Cathedral, acted similarly, and was 
summoned before the Privy Council, and was suspended 
from his preferment. At the instance of Bishop Sandys 1 
he was restored, but again brought before the Star 
Chamber when he addressed a long letter to Burghley 
advocating his views. Whilst Leicester always favoured 
the Puritans, the Lord Treasurer was thus on the side of 
the law and the prelates ; and though he was constantly 
chosen as arbiter, even by those with whom he disagreed, 
he never wavered in his insistence on the maintenance 
of uniformity, and obedience to the prescriptions laid 
down by Parliament and the rulers of the Church. 2 

Notwithstanding the appointment of two Secretaries 

1 The Bishop of London's letter to Burghley is at Hatfield, part ii. ; in 
extenso in Murdin. "These be dangerous days," he says, "full of itching 
ears mislying their minds, and ready to forget all obedience and duty. . . . 
A soft plaister is better than a sharp corosy to apply to this sore. ... If 
Mr. Deryng be somewhat spared, yet wal scoled, the others, being manifest 
offenders, may be dealt withal according to their deserts" (3rd June 1573). 

2 In one case his love of justice had an unfortunate termination. A crazy 
Puritan named Birchett stabbed Sir John Hawkins in the Strand, under the 
belief that he was Sir Christopher Hatton, the declared rival of Leicester in 
the Queen's affection ; and it was surmised also, his opponent in his Puritan 
leanings. The Queen issued a commission for Birchett's summary trial and 
punishment by martial law, but was persuaded by Burghley to remand him 
to safe custody for further inquiries. He was imprisoned in the Lollard's 
Tower, and a few days afterwards killed his keeper. He was clearly a maniac, 
but the affair brought great odium upon Puritanism, and led to the arrest of Mr. 



292 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

of State, which somewhat relieved him from writing 
despatches, almost every matter, great and small, was 
still referred to Burghley. We have given instances 
of his activity in foreign and ecclesiastical affairs ; but, 
as Ellis 1 truly says, "from a question of peace or war, 
down to a regulation for the lining of slop hose ; from 
quarrels at court to the bickering between a school- 
master and his scholar ; from the arrest of a peer to the 
punishment of a cutpurse — all was reported to him, and 
by all parties in turn his favour was craved." 

It must have been difficult for him to keep clear 
of court factions and scandal ; but though it was noto- 
rious that Leicester always opposed him, they still re- 
mained outwardly friendly, and their letters to each 
other are full of civil expressions. Sussex and Hatton 
were for ever at feud with Leicester. Alen^on's amorous 
agents scandalised all beholders by their open flirting 
with the Queen, to which Leicester retorted by making 
violent love to two sisters, Lady Sheffield and Frances 
Howard ; and the light-hearted and light-heeled young 
Earl of Oxford, Burghley's son-in-law at this time (1573), 
had danced himself into the good graces of the erotic 
Queen, which he soon lost by his folly. Stern Lady 
Burghley openly and imprudently condemned this phil- 
andering, and the Queen fell into a rage with her ; yet 
" my Lord Treasurer, even after his old manner, dealeth 
with matters of the State only, and beareth himself 
very uprightly. ... At all these love matters my Lord 
Treasurer winketh, and will not meddle any way." 2 

Cartwright, the leader of the party. It is to be noticed that Burghley pro- 
vided suitable preferment for all the eminent Puritan nonconformists who were 
dismissed from their positions in the Church ; Cartwright, Lever, and Samp- 
son being made respectively "masters" of charitable foundations where their 
opinions on ritual were of little importance. 

1 Original letters, Ellis. 

2 Gilbert Talbot to the Earl of Shrewsbury, 9th May 1573 (Lodge's 
Illustrations). 



1573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 293 

Burghley's private correspondence with his steward, 
Kemp, at Burghley, at this period, shows that his care for 
detail in his household management was as unwearied as 
ever. One letter written in June 1573 by Kemp is very 
curious. Burghley's mother was still alive, but, of course, 
very aged. She appears to have become unduly penurious 
as to her garb, and her son had ordered a dress for the 
old lady. The steward writes : " Mr. Thomas Cecil 
came home well, and my mistress, your mother, came 
to Burghley two hours before him. The gown that you 
would make, it must be for every day, and yet because 
it comes from you (except you write to her to the con- 
trary) she will make it her holiday gown ; whereof she 
hath great store already, both of silk and cloth. But I 
think, sir, if you make her one of cloth, with some velvet 
on it, with your letter to desire her for your sake to wear 
it daily, she would accustom herself to it ; so as she 
would forget to go any longer in such base apparel as 
she hath used to have a delight in, which is too mean 
for one of a lower estate than she is." The old lady 
also desired a chaplain for service twice a day ; and by 
Burghley's endorsement on the letter, it is evident that 
the gown and the chaplain were sent to her. 

During the Queen's great progress through Kent and 
Sussex in the autumn, Burghley attended her ; and whilst 
the court was at Eridge, the Treasurer, not without diffi- 
culty, persuaded the Queen to accede to Mary Stuart's 
request, through the Earl of Shrewsbury, that she should 
be allowed to visit the baths of Buxton, whither shortly 
afterwards Burghley himself went for his own malady, 1 

1 The number and variety of remedies sent to Burghley from all parts of the 
world for the cure of the gout are truly marvellous. We have already men- 
tioned some in an earlier page, but they became much more frequent after 
this year (1573), when a Mr. Dyon sent one which Burghley endorses as 
"Recipe pro podagra," as well as Lady Harrington. Dr. Nunes, the 
Queen's Portuguese physician, sent quite a collection of nostrums in Latin, 



294 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

and saw the unhappy Queen, whom on this occasion, at 
all events, he impressed not unfavourably. 1 During the 
Queen's progress, which was on a more lavish scale even 
than usual, 2 a determined attempt was made — and, accord- 
ing to one of Mary Stuart's letters from Buxton, not quite 
unsuccessfully — to arouse Elizabeth's distrust of Burghley. 
Simultaneously there were sent to the Queen, to Burghley, 
to Bacon, and the principal courtiers and ecclesiastics, 
another violent book printed in France against Burghley 
and the Lord Keeper. A copy was sent to the Queen 
by Lord Windsor, a refugee on the Continent, with great 
professions of attachment, and hints evidently directed 
against Burghley, " although for my part, in mine 
opinion, I suppose he is too wise to be overtaken in 
many of those things which he is touched withal." 3 
Burghley received his copy from an unknown hand in 
Canterbury Cathedral precincts, where he was lodged, and 
it appears quite to have upset his equanimity. He wrote 
(nth September 1573) to the Archbishop (Parker) bitterly 
resenting the attack at such a time " by some domestic 
hidden scorpion." "If God and our consciences were 
not our defence and consolation against these pestilential 
darts, we might well be weary of our lives." Parker 

and a German doctor recommended certain medicated slippers ; a tincture 
of gold was advocated by a Nicholas Gybberd, and the Earl of Shrewsbury 
was loud in his praises of " oyle of stagg's blood." Most of the recipes men- 
tioned will be found in the Lansdowne MSS., 18, 21, 27, 29, 39, and 42. 

1 See letters from Mary, in Labanoff, vol. iv. Elizabeth showed some 
amount of jealous suspicion at Burghley's interview with Mary, of which 
Leicester and the Treasurer's enemies made the most during his absence. 

2 Burghley, as Lord Treasurer, seems to have been seriously concerned 
at the heavy cost of these progresses. In the Lansdowne MSS., 16, there is 
a document, altered and corrected by Lord Burghley himself, of this date 
(1573), showing how the royal household expenses had been increased by 
this particular progress. It is to be deduced from the document that extra 
expenditure entailed was ^1034, os. 6d. 

3 See a curious letter from Lord Windsor to Burghley, loth January 1574, 
exculpating himself for this letter (Hatfield Papers, part ii., No. 181). 



1 573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 295 

returned "the mad book, so outrageously penned that 
malice hath made him blind. I judge it not worth an 
answer." Bacon was less disturbed with the matter 
than his brother-in-law, and summarises the contents 
of the book as follows : " It consisteth of three points. 
Chiefly it is to change the religion that now is ; 2nd, 
to establish the Scottish Queen's party ; and, 3rd, is an 
invective against us two. I like the conjunction of the 
matter, though I mislike the impudent lies of the author 
to maintain it." 

The accession of Morton to the Regency of Scotland 
had been followed by the complete collapse of Mary's 
cause there. Killigrew was ready with English bribes, 
and the Hamiltons and the Gordons were induced to 
abandon a hopeless struggle and lay down their arms. 
Only Kirkaldy of Grange held out, hoping against hope 
that the promised Guisan help would reach him in Edin- 
burgh Castle. Once a large sum of French money for 
him was withheld by the treachery of Sir James Balfour, 
corrupt almost to the point of grotesqueness ; and thence- 
forward Kirkaldy, Lord Hume, and the rest of the party 
simply held out in the castle to save their lives. But 
when Drury with English troops crossed the Border 
and reinforced Morton, Kirkaldy surrendered to the 
English general, on promise of fair treatment. Morton 
insisted upon the prisoners being delivered to him, for 
whilst they lived, he said, there would be no safety for 
him or the State ; and though Drury held out, Elizabeth 
at last gave way to Morton's importunity, and brave 
Kirkaldy and the rest of Mary's staunch friends lost their 
heads. Thenceforward Mary Stuart's cause was dead, 
so far as the Scottish people themselves were concerned. 
Morton nearly obtained the Bishop of Ross, too, from 
Elizabeth, but he was after all a sovereign's Ambassador, 
and her Council dissuaded her from surrendering him. 



296 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1573 

On his abject submission and solemn promise never 
again to take part in public affairs, 1 he was allowed to 
go to France, to break his pledge at once, and become 
thenceforward an untiring agent for the furtherance of 
Spanish aims in England. Thus Scotland for a time, 
under so firm an English ally as Morton, ceased to cause 
active anxiety to Elizabeth and her minister. 

Alba, sick of his sanguinary failure, was replaced in 
Flanders by a more diplomatic Governor (Requesens) late 
in 1573. Though De Guaras in London continued humbly 
to imitate De Spes, and immersed himself in intrigues, such 
as that of the English captains who proposed to betray 
Flushing, the plans of those who offered to kill the Prince 
of Orange, to kidnap the young King of Scotland, and 
the like, many of these plans were merely traps set by 
Burghley to learn how far the Spaniards were willing 
to go ; and they came to nothing, for of all things Philip 
needed peace the most. Alba and the war party in Spain 
were in disgrace, the commerce of the country was almost 
destroyed by the privateers, and friendly relations with 
England were once more the great object of Philip's 
policy. Burghley also renewed his efforts to draw the 
countries closer together, for reasons which will presently 
be stated. A great delivery of Catholics from prison was 
made mainly at his instance, and drew upon him remon- 
strances and attacks, both on the part of some of the 
Bishops themselves, in a guarded fashion, and more 
violently from the Puritans, now openly patronised by 
Leicester. Arising out of this, a great conspiracy was 
said to have been discovered against the lives of Arch- 
bishop Parker and Lord Burghley, on the part of one 
Undertree. The depositions of the accused, which are 
in the Hatfield Papers, are, as usual in such cases, full 
to the extent of diffuseness ; but though Parker was 

1 Hatfield Papers ; in extenso in Murdin. 



1573] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 297 

much alarmed, and the affair gave Burghley an infinity 
of trouble, there does not appear to have been much 
importance really attached to it. 

The key to Burghley's milder attitude towards 
the Catholics — apart from the disappearance of Mary 
Stuart's party in Scotland — was the position of affairs in 
France. The talk of Elizabeth's marriage with Alengon 
had continued uninterruptedly, drawn out with a thousand 
banalities as to the possibility of secret meetings between 
the lovers, the depth and number of pock holes on the 
suitor's face, his personal qualities, his religious elasticity, 
and the like. His brother, Charles IX., was only twenty- 
four, but it was known that he could not live long ; the 
heir, Anjou, now King of Poland, was a furious and 
fanatical Catholic. With the knowledge of Elizabeth and 
her minister, all France was enveloped in a vast con- 
spiracy, in which the Montmorencis and the "politicians" 
were making common cause with the Huguenots, of 
which combination Alengon was the figure-head. But 
Catharine de Medici was fully aware of the fact, and 
was determined to frustrate it. With Anjou for King she 
might still be supreme in France ; whereas the rise of 
Alengon, under the tutelage of the Huguenots and the 
Queen of England, would have meant extinction for 
her. Several times before Charles died, Alengon and 
the Princes of Navarre and Conde had tried to escape 
to England, but Catharine held them tight, and never 
left them. Montgomerie was waiting for the signal, with 
a strong fleet in the Channel, to swoop down upon 
Normandy, and all the Protestants and anti-Guisans in 
France were under arms. The mine was to burst in 
April, the Princes were to be rescued forcibly from 
Catharine, and St. Bartholomew was to be avenged. 
But the Queen-mother was on the alert. Just before 
the day fixed she hurried away from St. Germains to 



298 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1574 

Catholic Paris, clapped Alengon and Navarre, Montmo- 
renci, De Cosse, and all the chiefs into prison, and then 
crushed the Protestant armies piecemeal, for they were 
leaderless and far apart. When, therefore, Charles IX. 
died (30th May 1574), Catharine was mistress of the 
situation, and held France in her hand until the new 
King, Henry III., arrived, to take possession of the 
throne. With such a sovereign as this in France, led 
by Catharine, who had her grudge to satisfy against 
Elizabeth for the encouragement she had given to the 
Princes, it was natural that Burghley should again smile 
somewhat upon the Catholics, and say civil words to 
Spain ; especially as panic-stricken rumours came — 
though they were untrue — that Philip was fitting out 
a great navy to send with a powerful force to Flanders. 1 
Catholic Flanders, moreover, had mostly been brought 
back to Spanish allegiance by the mildness of Requesens ; 
and Elizabeth was growing less willing to continue to 
provide large sums of money to uphold Orange in what 
now appeared to be a well-nigh desperate cause, if it 
had to be supported entirely from England. So when 
Requesens' envoys came to see her about the regulation 
of trade, and the exclusion of the privateers from her ports, 
she was all smiles ; and although upon being appealed 
to, to allow English mercenaries to serve the Spaniards 
in Flanders as they served Orange, she refused, though 

1 As a matter of fact he was straining every nerve at the time to hold back 
his half-brother, Don John of Austria, who, with papal support, was full of 
all manner of grand plans for the founding of a great Christian Empire in 
Africa or the East, with himself as Emperor ; or else for invading England 
from Flanders, marrying Mary Stuart, and reigning over a Catholic Great 
Britain. Don John and Gregory XIII. were very serious in their plans ; but 
Philip was determined that nothing of the sort should be done with Spanish 
forces. He was absolutely bankrupt at the time, and had recently been 
obliged to repudiate the interest upon the vast sums he had borrowed. This 
had caused wholesale financial disaster in Italy and Flanders, and Philip's 
credit was at its lowest ebb. 






1574] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 299 

not very firmly, she expressed her desire to bring 
Orange to submit to the King of Spain. Once more, 
therefore, an unrestrained Catholic regime in France 
inevitably drew England and Spain closer together. It 
was only when the Huguenots were paramount, who 
would not join Philip against England, or help the 
Catholics of Scotland, that Elizabeth and Burghley could 
afford to disregard the friendship of the King of Spain. 

The behaviour of the young sovereign of France — 
no longer a king, but a besotted monk, sunk into the 
deepest abyss of debauchery and superstition — kept alive 
the discontent of the Huguenots and "politicians," who 
had regarded his accession with horror. Alengon and 
the King held rival courts in Paris, the one surrounded 
by reformers, the other by all that was retrograde and 
vicious. Cardinal Lorraine was dead, and the King's 
advisers were no longer statesmen, but mendicant 
friars and the Italian time-servers of the Queen - 
mother : Henry of Guise was just entering into the 
arena, and was already a popular idol ; and all seemed 
to portend a renewal of French activity in favour of 
Mary Stuart. 1 Elizabeth therefore went out of her way 
to dazzle poor foolish De Guaras again. Seeing him 
walking in Richmond Park, she called him to her, and 

1 Mary's own hopes were high for a short time after the accession of her 
favourite brother-in-law. But she soon found out her mistake.: Catharine's 
aim was not to benefit Mary Stuart, but to prevent the extinction of French 
influence in Scotland. Her first act after Henry III. ascended the throne 
was to project an embassy to Scotland, accredited, not as all previous French 
embassies had been, to Mary Stuart's party alone, but to both parties. Mary 
indignantly protested at this proposed, recognition of the "usurpers," and 
the embassy was abandoned. La Chatre was sent to London in March 1575, 
to confirm the treaty of Blois (in which Elizabeth and the Huguenots were 
comprised), but he did not say a word in favour of the liberation of the Queen 
of Scots. The withdrawal soon afterwards of the Guisan La Mothe Fenelon 
from England, and the appointment, as Ambassador, of Castelnau, a great friend 
of the English alliance, quite convinced Mary that she had nothing to hope for 
from Henry III., who, sunk in sloth and vice, left everything to his mother. 



300 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1575 

exerted all her witchery upon him (March 1575). "You 
understand," she said, "full well, old wine, old bread, 
and old friends should be prized the most, and if only for 
the sake of showing these Frenchmen who are wrang- 
ling as to whether our friendship is firm or not, there 
is good reason to prove outwardly the kind feeling 
which inwardly exists." 1 She accused the poor man, 
quite coquettishly, of having received a token from the 
Queen of Scots — which he had not — but ended by quite 
winning him over by her prattle. Almost simultaneously 
with this, strict orders were given to the Warden of the 
Cinque Ports " to prevent the landing of the Prince of 
Orange, or any of his aiders or abettors in the conspiracy 
against the King of Spain, and also to prevent their 
receiving any aid, succour, or relief, in men, armour, or 
victuals." 2 

Considering that the revolt in Holland had been 
mainly kept up from England, this was indeed a com- 
plete change of policy ; but more was behind it even than 
appeared. Many of the Catholic refugees on the Con- 
tinent were spies in the service of Lord Burghley, to 
whom nearly all of them appealed as their only hope 
and protector, and one of them particularly, named 
Woodshaw, 8 who was deep in the confidence of La 
Motte, the Spanish Governor of Gravelines. The latter 
suggested that, as war between France and England 
was in the air, it would be a good plan for the English 
to seize Calais or Boulogne, with the aid of the Spaniards, 
and come to terms with Philip to prevent any aid or food 
reaching the French from Flanders or Artois. This was 
conveyed to Burghley, and soon Sir William Drury, 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 1 6th April 1575 (Hatfield Papers). 

3 Woodshaw's interesting letters of this period to Burghley are in Hatfield 
Papers. See also "Copley's Correspondence," Roxburghe Club. 



1575] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 301 

Colonel Chester, and several of the officers who had 
come from Holland, were in close conference daily with 
him and the other Councillors remaining in London 
when the Queen went upon her summer progress. De 
Guaras, whilst reporting their movements, was in the 
dark as to their object. " During the last three days," 
he says, "at night or at unsuspected hours, they have 
taken from the Tower sixty waggons and gun car- 
riages, which have been shipped to Dover." Guns, 
battery-trains, culverins, fieldpieces, and ammunition 
were being shipped on four of the Queen's ships at 
Rochester. Mariners were being pressed, commanders 
were leaving secretly for the coast, Burghley's son-in- 
law the Earl of Oxford, with Ralph Hopton and young 
Montmorenci, hurried off to Germany, and the Huguenot 
agents were closeted with Burghley almost day and 
night. We know now what it all meant, by a letter from the 
Earl of Sussex to Lord Burghley, 1 in which he deplores 
the projected war with Catholic France, which, he says, 
is only brought about by those who wish to prevent the 
Queen's marriage with Alencon. u It will bring her into 
war with all Europe, and she and the realm will smart 
for the pleasing of these men's humours." The cost of 
the war, he says, was to be defrayed equally by the 
King of Navarre (Henry), the German princes, and the 
Queen ; " but he fears her Majesty in the end must pay 
for all, or let all fall when she hath put her foot in." 

Wilkes, the Clerk of the Council, was sent with a large 
sum of money to young Montmorenci (Meru) in Stras- 
bourg, and then over the Rhine to the Duke Hans 
Casimir, the great mercenary ; and Meru was able to write 
to Burghley in October, " Thanks to the Queen's favour 
by your means, we are now on the point of succeeding. 
One of the finest armies that for twenty years hath issued 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



302 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1575 

from Germany, ready to march, is coming just in time to 
succour the King's brother." x All through the summer 
De Guaras was at fault as to the meaning of the pre- 
parations, which he thought might be a joint expedition 
against the Spaniards in Flanders. As we have seen, 
the very opposite really was the case. Some of the 
principal English officers, indeed, who had been with 
Orange were full of plots with De Guaras for poisoning 
the Prince, for betraying Flushing into Spanish hands, 
and so forth. For the moment there were certainly no 
smiles from Elizabeth for the Netherlanders ; for Orange 
had taken a masterly step, such as she herself might 
have conceived. When he saw that English help was 
slackening, he boldly made approaches to France for 
help. So long as it was Huguenot help under her con- 
trol, Elizabeth did not mind ; but when it was a question 
of marrying Orange's daughter to Alengon or some other 
French prince, and obtaining French national patronage, 
it was quite another matter — that Elizabeth would never 
allow. So England and Spain grew closer and closer. 
Sir Henry Cobham was sent as an envoy to Philip, 
ostensibly on the question of the English prisoners 
of the Inquisition, but really to propose a friendship 
between the two countries, and inform the King of 
the Prince of Orange's intrigues with the French. 2 A 
Spanish flotilla on its way to the Netherlands, under 
Don Pedro de Valdes, was, moreover, welcomed in the 
English ports, and an envoy from Requesens took part, 
as the Queen's guest, in the memorable festivities at 
Kenilworth. 

A renewed appeal was made to the Council by Orange 
in August, through Colonel Chester. He offered the island 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 

2 See Philip's minute of his conversation with Cobham, October 1575 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth), and also Lord Burghley's Diary. 



iS75] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 303 

of Zeeland to Elizabeth, if she would hold it, and begged 
permission to raise two thousand fresh men in England. 
The reply given by Burghley was to the effect that " if 
the Queen allowed such a thing, the King of Spain would 
have a good cause for introducing schism and fire into 
her country through Ireland. If Orange carried out his 
threat to hand over the territory to the French, the 
Queen would oppose it." Every day some fresh proof 
of friendship with Spain was given. Frobisher proposed 
to place his fleet at the disposal of the King of Spain, 
proclamations were issued forbidding all British sub- 
jects from taking service with Orange, and offers of 
mediation were frequent. In September 1575, Alencon 
managed to escape the vigilance of his brother and his 
mother, fled to Dreux, adopted the Huguenot cause, and 
headed the revolt with Henry of Navarre. This was the 
eventuality in which the English preparations were to 
have been employed. But, again, Catharine de Medici 
was too clever to be caught. She suddenly released 
Montmorenci and the rest of the " politicians " from the 
Bastile, attached them to the King's cause, and through 
them patched up a six months' truce between the two 
brothers (November). The terms were hard for Henry. 
Alencon was bribed with 100,000 livres, and the three 
rich duchies of Anjou, Berri, and Touraine ; Hans 
Casimir got 300,000 crowns, and a pension of 40,000 
livres ; the German mercenaries were handsomely paid 
to go home ; Conde was promised the governorship of 
Picardy ; the Montmorencis, De Cosse, the Chatillons, 
and the rest of the malcontents were bought ; the crown 
jewels of France were pawned, and the country plunged 
deeply in debt to pay for the famous truce. 

Then Elizabeth and her advisers found themselves 
confronted with increased difficulties, as they usually did 
when the Catholics in France had a free hand. Catharine 



30 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1575 

and the King saw that France was not big enough to 
hold at the same time the sovereign and the heir pre- 
sumptive, and cast about for means to get rid of him 
profitably. The best suggestion for them came from 
the Walloon nobles in favour of Spain. Why should 
not Alencon marry a daughter of the Spanish King and 
be made Viceroy of Spanish Flanders ? The mere 
whisper of such an arrangement drove Elizabeth into 
a new course. She might hint, as she did pretty broadly 
many times, at the marriage of the young Prince with 
herself, but Alengon thought he saw more advantage else- 
where. For the next three years he was held tightly in 
the leading-strings of his mother and brother — no longer 
a Huguenot, but an ostentatiously devout Catholic, hating 
the King and his surroundings bitterly; jealous, vengeful, 
and turbulent, but looking for his future to the Catholics 
and the League rather than to the Queen of England, 
with whom he kept up just a sufficient pretence of love- 
making to prevent her from opposing him in Flanders. 
It was doubly necessary now for Elizabeth to be friendly 
with Spain ; but she could not afford to see Orange utterly 
crushed, for with the Huguenots and Protestant Hol- 
land both subdued, there was no barrier between her 
and Catholic vengeance. The position was a perplexing 
one for her. Orange sent over prayers almost daily for 
help, or he must abandon the struggle. At one time, in 
December, when the Queen learned that a great deputa- 
tion of Dutch Protestant nobles were on the way to offer 
her Holland and Zeeland in exchange for English support, 1 
" she entered her chamber alone, slamming the door after 
her, and crying out that they were ruining her over this 
business. She declared loudly that she would have no 

1 Burghley, in his Diary, refers to this embassy, giving the names of the 
envoys. He says they based their offer of Holland, &c., to the Queen upon 
her descent from Philippa of Hainault and Holland, who married Edward III. 



1576] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 305 

forces sent openly to Holland. She was in such grief 
that her ladies threatened to burst her door open if she 
would not admit them, as they could not bear her to be 
alone in such trouble." x But loudly as she might pro- 
test, especially in the hearing of the friends of Spain, and 
roughly as she might use St. Aldegonde, Paul Buiz, and 
the rest of the Netherlanders who prayed for aid, she took 
care, with Burghley's help, to look fixedly in another 
direction when men and arms, munitions and money, 
were sent over to Orange in violation of her own orders. 
What Lord Burghley's action in the matter was is 
seen by his letters. Beale, one of the clerks of the 
Council, was sent over to Zeeland to report on 
Orange's position, and to insist upon the suppression 
of piracy. Burghley thus writes to Walsingham (16th 
April 1576) : " I have perused all the letters and 
memorandum of Mr. Beale's concerning his voyage 
into Zeeland, and so well allow of the whole course 
therein taken by the Lords, that both with heart and 
hand I sign them." 2 The Flushing pirates appear 
to have offered some insult to the Earl of Oxford, 
Burghley's son-in-law, on his way to England, at which 
the Treasurer was extremely angry, 3 an unusual thing 

1 Gerald Talbot writes : " Her Majesty is troubled with these causes, 
which maketh her very melancholy, and she seemeth to be greatly out of quiet. 
What shall be done in these matters is at present unknown ; but here are 
ambassadors on all sides, who labour greatly, one against the other. Her 
Majesty hath put upon her to deal betwixt the King of Spain and the Low 
Country ; the King of France and his brother. Her Majesty may deal as 
pleaseth her, for I think they both be weary of war, especially Flanders, 
which, as report goeth, is utterly wanting of money, munition, &c." Hampton 
Court, 4th January 1576. 

2 Burghley was at the time unable to attend the Council in consequence of 
an attack of his old enemy the gout. 

3 A few days later Burghley had reason to be still more angry with Oxford 
himself, though with his reverence for rank he appears to have treated him 
with inexhaustible patience and forbearance. Oxford had been very extrava- 
gant and got into difficulties. During his absence abroad he had made some 

U 






306 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1576 

with him. In the same letter he writes : " I find it hard 
to make a good distinction between anger and judgment 
for Lord Oxford's misusage,and especially when I look into 
the universal barbarism of the Prince's (Orange) force of 
Flushingers, who are only a rabble of common pirates, 
or worse, who make no difference whom they outrage, I 
mistrust any good issue of the cause, though of itself it 
should be favoured." He almost violently urges that 
Beale should ask the Prince of Orange to avenge such 
an insult " by hanging some of the principals." " Such 
an outrage cannot be condoned without five or six 
of such thieves being hanged. If the Prince were 
rid of a hundred of them it would be better for the 
cause. You see my anger leadeth my judgment. But 
I am not truly more moved hereto for particular causes 
than for the public." 1 The same day a very strong re- 
monstrance from the English Council was written to 
Orange, saying that the piracy of the Flushing men 
was rendering his cause odious to all Christendom, and 
would ruin his enterprise. 

The Netherlanders, especially Paul Buiz, who lodged 

complaint to Burghley about his steward or agent, but nothing apparently of 
consequence. In March, Lord Burghley wrote to him in Paris, saying that his 
wife was pregnant ; and the Earl's answer was most cordial, full of rejoicing 
at the news, and announcing his immediate return. The Treasurer's eldest 
son, Sir Thomas Cecil (he had been knighted the previous year at Kenilworth), 
travelled to Dover to meet his brother-in-law. All went well until they 
arrived in London, when Oxford declined to meet his wife or hold any com- 
munication with her. Burghley reasoned, remonstrated, and besought in 
vain. Oxford was sulky and intractable. His wife, he said, had been influ- 
enced by her parents against him, and he would have no more to do with 
her. The whole of the documents in the quarrel are in Hatfield Papers. As 
some indication of the state in which noblemen of the period travelled even 
short distances, two entries in the uncalendared household account-book at 
Hatfield may be quoted: "Saturday, December 1576. My Lord and Lady 
Oxford came from London to Theobalds ; 28 servants with them." And 
again, '•' Monday, 14th January 1577. My Lord and my Lady of Oxford and 
28 persons came from London." 
1 State Papers, Foreign. 



1576] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 307 

with Burghley's servant, Herll, in Redcross Street, did 
their best to excuse the Flushingers, and begged that 
"these rough men be not roughly dealt with." It is 
evident that they looked upon Leicester and the Puri- 
tans as their champions rather than moderate Burghley, 
whose approaches to Spain at the time were, of course, 
well known. Herll writes (14th March 1576) : " It is 
given out by those of good sort who profess the religion, 
that your Lordship has been the only obstacle to this 
Holland service, by dissuading her Majesty from the 
enterprise, when the Earl of Leicester and several earnest 
friends were furtherers thereof. They complain that 
these poor men who were sent to the Queen have been, 
contrary to promise, kept by indirect dealing so long 
here, to their utter undoing at home and abroad. They 
say that Sir F. Walsingham dealt honestly with them 
from the first. He said they would get nothing, and 
lose their time. They say these unworthy proceedings 
with foreign nations make the English the most hated 
men in the world, and to be contemned for mere 
abusers, as those who put on religion and piety and 
justice for a cloak to serve humours withal. Your 
Lordship's enemies, however, are compelled to say that 
you are more subject to evil judgment for your good 
service than for evil itself." When Herll spoke to Paul 
Buiz about Burghley's anger at the outrage on Lord 
Oxford, the Netherlander " struck his breast, and said 
your Lordship was the only man who had dealt sincerely 
with them, and truly favoured their cause, and yet was 
forced to give them hard words, according to the altera- 
tions of the time, parties, and occasion, which kind of 
free proceeding he preferred of all others." 1 

A few months later (August) Herll was made the 
means of conveying to Colonel Chester, then with Orange, 

1 State Papers, Foreign. 



308 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1576 

Lord Burghley's view of the situation. " Her Majesty," 
he says, " is so moved by those insolent delinges of the 
Prynce and his Zeelanders, as none dare move her to 
ani consideratyon towards theme, butt all is sett uppon 
revenge of their lewd acts and worse speche, and to 
extermynate them owt of the world, rather than endure 
it ani longer. And where the Prynce pretends aid owt 
of France, he dawnceth in a nett. If he se not that, her 
Majesty knows the contrary, and that herein he is greatly 
abused, or seeketh to abuse others, with small credit to 
hymselfe and less assurans to his estate when this maske 
is taken away." l The great indignation about the pirates 
may or may not have been sincere ; but it is unques- 
tionable that it was the fear expressed of an arrange- 
ment between Orange and the French that really caused 
the disquietude. 2 The remedy to be proposed to Orange 
by Chester was simply that he, Orange, should prevent 
any repetition of the piratical outrages of the Flushing 
men, and apologise for them, and his friends in England 
will move the Queen " to help him underhand ; but to 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 

2 How true this is may be seen by the account of an important conversa- 
tion De Guaras had with Burghley on the 30th January 1576 (Spanish State 
Papers, Elizabeth). De Guaras had prayed Burghley to prevent the Queen 
from accepting the offer of Orange's envoys for her to take Holland and 
Zeeland. The Treasurer replied that, if the offer were accepted, it would 
only be in the interests of Spain, and to prevent the French from obtaining 
a footing. The Spaniard derided such a possibility, and Burghley said that 
England, in pursuance of its ancient policy, would defend the rights of the House 
of Burgundy, but that "foreign intruders" had misgoverned the States to an 
extent which endangered England itself. "Foreign intruders" indeed, re- 
torted De Guaras ; "your Lordship cannot call Spaniards 'foreign intruders' 
in Flanders." Burghley got angry at this, and said, "You people are of 
such sort that wherever you set foot no grass grows, and you are hated every- 
where." Hollanders, he continued, were fighting for their privileges, and 
would be successful in upholding them. The end of the colloquy was a 
renewal of the Queen's wish to mediate between Orange and Spain. The 
great object was to prevent the French from obtaining influence in Flanders, 
and here Spanish and English aims were identical. 



1576] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 309 

say that her Majesty will be forced to do anything, 
maugre her will, is a great absurdity." But if Orange 
will open his eyes and see things as they are, "somewhat 
(yea, some round portion) will be voluntarily given to the 
assistance of the cause, and to aid both Zeeland and 
Holland, especially the latter, to which country the 
Queen and her Council are greatly inclined." Orange 
was a diplomatist as keen as Burghley himself, and he 
well knew that, as a last resource, he could always force 
the hands of the English Government by negotiating for 
aid from France. Elizabeth might swear at his envoys, 
make friends with his enemies the Spaniards, threaten 
to expend the last man and the last shilling she had to 
turn the French out of Flanders, if ever they entered ; 
but she always ended in sending aid "underhand" to 
Orange to prevent his union with the French ; unless, 
as happened later, the French were Huguenots disowned 
by their own King, and going as her humble servants. 

Leicester was for ever clamouring for open help to 
be sent to Orange ; the Puritans, who took their cue 
from him, were more aggressive than ever in the 
country ; l but ready as the Queen might be to dally 
Leicester, she took care to make no serious move in the 
knotty question of the Netherlands without the advice 
of her " spirit," as she nicknamed the great Lord Trea- 
surer. 2 In spite of his almost continual illness, she 

1 A violent attack against the hierarchy, and even against the Queen, 
was made in Parliament (February 1576) by Paul Wentworth, member for 
Tregony, a strong Puritan, who declared against the powers given to the 
bishops to regulate ritual without the intervention of Parliament, and com- 
plained of the rejection by the Queen of the bills against the Queen of Scots 
in the previous session of 1572. Wentworth was imprisoned in the Tower 
for a few days for his boldness. (D'Ewes' Journal.) 

3 As Sussex for once was on the side of Leicester and the Puritans, Burghley 
seems to have depended as an ally at this time principally upon Hatton. 
letter from the latter to the Treasurer (26th August 1576, Lansdowne MSS., 22) 
shows that Burghley was urging him to return to court from the country, 



3io THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1576 

summoned him to her, wherever she might be ; and at 
about the period when the letters just quoted were 
written, the Earl of Sussex writes saying that the Queen 
has just received intelligence from beyond the seas which 
she must discuss with him at once. When Burghley 
had seen the Queen, either on that occasion or soon 
after, and returned home, Sussex writes thus : " Her 
Majesty spoke honourably of your Lordship's deserts, 
and of her affection for you, and of your sound, deep 
judgment and counsel ; using these words, ' that no prince 
in Europe had such a councillor as she had of him.' If 
your Lordship had heard her speeches, they must needs 
have been to your great contentment. The end of her 
Majesty's speeches was that she prayed your Lordship to 
come to Nonsuch, as soon as you conveniently might." 

Burghley, indeed, was the only one of her ministers 
whom she treated with anything approaching respect, 
for he always respected himself. Walsingham, espe- 
cially, was the object of her vulgar abuse. "Scurvy 
knave " and " rogue " were the terms she frequently 
applied to him ; and it was apparently not at all an un- 
common thing for her, in moments of impatience with 
him, to pluck off her high-heeled shoe and fling it in 
his face. Leicester she alternately petted and insulted. 
After a squabble he used to sulk at Wanstead for a 
few days, till she softened and commanded him to 
return, and then the comedy recommenced. Hatton 
and Heneage were treated in similar fashion, but with 
even less consideration. Only towards the Lord Trea- 
surer, except for occasional fits of distrust caused by his 
enemies, the Queen usually behaved with decorum. 
How careful he was to avoid all cause for doubt is seen 

where he was lying ill, and apparently unhappy. His recent unjust extortion 
of the lease of Ely Place, Holborn, from the Bishop of Ely (Cox), had ren- 
dered him very unpopular. 



1576] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 311 

by his answer to Lord Shrewsbury's offer of his son as a 
husband for one of Burghley's daughters. 1 It will be 
recollected that Lord Shrewsbury had the custody of the 
Queen of Scots, and that Burghley had fallen into semi- 
disgrace shortly before, because he had visited Buxton 
at the same time as Mary and her keeper. The match 
proposed was a good one, and the Lord Treasurer — a 
new noble — was flattered and pleased at the offer, but 
declined it, nainly because his enemies had put into the 
Queen's head that he had gone to Buxton at the instance 
of the Shrewsburys, to plot in favour of Mary ; " and 
hereof at my return to her Majesty's presence, I had 
very sharp reproofs . . . w T ith plain charging of me for 
favouring the Queen of Scots, and that in so earnest 
sort, as I never looked for, knowing my integrity to her 
Majesty, but specially knowing how contrariously the 
Queen of Scots conceived of me for many things." He 
continues his letter with an evidently sincere protest of 
his loyalty and disinterestedness, and the absence in him 
of any personal feeling against Mary, but declares his 
determination to do his best, at all costs, to frustrate 
any attempted injury against his mistress or her realm. 

Notwithstanding this small cloud, Burghley went again 
to Buxton in 1577. A somewhat curious letter from 
Leicester, who went to Buxton before him in June, shows 
that the Lord Treasurer's mode of life was not always 
prudent. Leicester says that he and his brother are 

1 A similar but more flattering offer was made in 1573 by the unfortunate 
Earl of Essex, who proposed that his eldest son, then only about six years old, 
should be betrothed to Burghley's daughter (Lansdowne MSS., 17). A few 
hours before he died (21st September 1576) the Earl wrote a most pathetic 
letter to Lord Burghley, praying him to take the same son into his household, 
and beseeching him to be good to him for the sake of his father, "who lived 
and died your true and unfeigned friend" (Hatfield Papers). It is sad to 
consider that the son grew up to be the enemy of his father's friend ; to suc- 
ceed, in his enmity of Burghley, the vile Leicester, who dishonoured his 
mother and deliberately ruined his father. 



312 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1576 

benefiting greatly from the water. "We observe our 
physician's orders diligently, and find great pleasure 
both in drinking and bathing in the water. I think it 
would be good for your Lordship, but not if you do as 
we hear your Lordship did last time : taking great jour- 
neys abroad ten or twelve miles a day, and using liberal 
diet with company dinners and suppers. We take another 
way, dining two or three together, having but one dish 
of meat at most, and taking the air afoot or on horseback 
moderately." 1 In July (1577) Burghley started from 
Theobalds for his Lincolnshire estates, and thence to 
Buxton. Leicester wrote to him there that the Queen 
was desirous of receiving a "tun of Buxton water in 
hogsheads ; " but when in due time the water arrived, 
"her Majesty seemeth not to make any great account 
of it. And yet she more than twice or thrice commanded 
me earnestly to write to you for it, and . . . asked me 
sundry times whether I had remembered it or not : but 
it seems her Majesty doth mistrust it will not be of the 
goodness here it is there ; besides, somebody told her 
there was some bruit of it about, as though her Majesty 
had had some sore leg. Such like devices made her half 
angry with me now for sending to you for it." 2 This 
hint of her sore leg was enough to make Elizabeth 
sacrifice a river of Buxton water if necessary. She, like 
her father before her, really had an issue in one of her 
legs, and there was no point upon which she was more 
sensitive. 

1 Hatfield Papers. 2 Ibid. 



CHAPTER XII 

1576-1580 

We have seen that from the accession of Henry III. of 
France in the autumn of 1574 it suited English policy to 
draw closer to Spain. An event happened, however, late 
in 1576 which once more changed the entire position. 
Requesens, the Spanish Viceroy of Flanders, had died in 
March 1576, before his mission of pacification was com- 
plete. It is true that Catholic Flanders and Brabant had 
been won back again, but Holland and Zeeland still stood 
out. The fierce Spanish infantry cared for no distinction 
between Fleming and Hollander, Catholic or Protestant, 
and were openly discontented at the conciliatory policy 
which Philip's penury rendered needful. They were 
unpaid, for there was no money in the treasury to pay 
them, and soon mutiny, pillage, and murder became the 
order of the day. Philip was in despair, and ordered 
his brother Don Juan to hurry to Flanders from Italy to 
pacify and withdraw the troops, and to conciliate the 
indignant Catholic Flemings at any cost. Don Juan 
scorned and hated the task — which he said a woman 
could do better than a soldier. He was full of a secret 
plan to dash over to England with the Spanish infantry 
from Flanders ; and instead of obeying orders and going 
direct to his new government, he hurried to Spain for the 
purpose of persuading his brother to allow him to have 
his way. 

The time thus wasted was fatal. Peace with Eng- 

313 



3H THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1576 

land was absolutely necessary for Philip, and he re- 
fused to countenance Don Juan's plans. But Orange 
had spies everywhere ; Burghley's secretary, Herll, was 
in Flanders, and long before Don Juan arrived on the 
Flemish frontier the hopes of the murderous rabble of 
soldiery that the young Prince would lead them to Eng- 
land were well known to the Lord Treasurer and his 
mistress. Early in November 1576 the Spanish fury 
burst upon Antwerp. The Council of Regency consisted 
mostly of Flemish Catholic nobles, and they fought as 
well as they might against the blood lust of the King's 
soldiers. When all hope was gone, and the fairest cities 
of Flanders had been devastated and ruined, and their 
populations massacred, without distinction of age, sex, or 
creed, then Catholic Flanders turned against the wreckers 
of their homes, and shoulder to shoulder with Orange 
and his Protestants, stood at bay. When Don Juan 
arrived at Luxemburg he was informed that the States 
would only allow him to take up his governorship on 
terms to be dictated by them in union with Orange ; the 
first condition of which was that the Spanish troops must 
leave the Netherlands forthwith, and by land, in order 
that they might not invade England. Don Juan was 
mad with fury and disappointment ; but chafe as he 
might, he had to give way, and in the end was forced to 
enter Brussels only as Governor on sufferance of the 
States in the spring of 1577. 

To England there came now to beg for aid and sup- 
port, not rough Zeelanders alone, not beggars of the 
sea, not boorish burghers, but the very nobles who had 
often come before as Philip's representatives — De Croys, 
Montmorencis, De Granvelles, Zweveghems, and the 
like ; Catholics of bluest blood, but ready to claim any 
help against the Spanish oppressor. Dr. Wilson was sent 
as English envoy to the States, and Sir John Smith went 



1577] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 315 

to Madrid with a formal offer from Elizabeth to mediate. 1 
Philip's only course was to accept any terms which left 
him even a nominal sovereignty of his Netherlands 
dominions, and this he did, rather than allow Elizabeth 
to pose as mediatrix between him and his subjects. But 
the altered position in Flanders completely changed the 
attitude of England towards Spain, especially when in 
the summer of 1577 Don Juan lost patience, broke faith 
with the Flemings, threw himself into the fortress of 
Namur, and defied the States. England's traditional 
alliance had not been with the crown of Spain, but with 
the House of Burgundy as possessor of the Netherlands ; 
and now that Flanders and Brabant were at one with 
Holland and Zeeland in upholding their rights against 
Spain, England was naturally on their side against the 
foreigner, quite independently of the question of creed. 
There was no longer any concealment about it. 2 The 
Duke of Arschot's brother was at the English court in 
September with the acquiescence of Orange, planning 
an arrangement which seemed to offer a means by 
which all parties might be satisfied. The young Aus- 
trian Archduke Mathias, Philip's nephew, was suddenly 
spirited away from Vienna and installed by the Flemings 

1 Philip's reception of Smith was cold, more so even than had been his 
treatment of Sir Henry Cobham. Smith writes to Burghley (5th February 
1577) saying that he " has had special care to make known the Queen's noble 
nature and the great love and obedience of her subjects ; in which he has not 
detracted any title of honour that your Lordship is worthy of. Yea, even the 
Duke of Alba himself gives you the honour to be one of the most sufficient 
men in Christendom in all politic government." Smith's reports of the 
extremity of Philip's financial exhaustion caused great surprise amongst the 
friends of Spain in Elizabeth's court, many of whom disbelieved them. When 
Smith returned and begged the Queen for a reward for his services, she refused 
to accord him anything except to take his bills payable in twelve months for 
^2000 instead of a mortgage she had on his lands. (See letter 21st Septem- 
ber 1578, Hatton to Burghley: State Papers, Domestic.) 

2 A sum of no less than 400,000 crowns was openly provided by Elizabeth 
for the States at the request of the Catholic Flemish nobles. 



316 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1577 

as sovereign of Flanders, with Orange as his guide 
and mentor. An English army under Leicester or his 
brother was to be raised to support him against Don 
Juan, who was rallying a Catholic force, crying to the 
Duke of Guise for help, and making a last appeal to his 
brother to save his honour, if not his sovereignty. The 
outbreak of the Protestants in Ghent, encouraged by the 
proximity of Orange, the capture and imprisonment of 
Arschot and the Catholic nobles, and the desecration of 
Catholic shrines (end of October), forced Philip's hands. 
The Archduke Mathias as a tributary sovereign, with the 
Catholic Flemings paramount over Orange, might have 
been tolerated ; but if the Protestants and Orange were 
going to predominate, Spain must fight to the end. So 
with a heavy heart Philip bent to the inevitable, and 
sent Alexander Farnese and a Spanish army from Italy 
once more to reconquer the Netherlands. 

The invariable excuse given by Elizabeth for her help 
to the States was, that it was to keep the French out of 
Flanders ; Don Juan's appeal to the Guises being espe- 
cially distasteful to her. " The present support desired 
of her," she declared, " is only in consideration of the 
extreme necessity of the States by reason of the great 
preparations in France and elsewhere to overrun them, 
and bring utter ruin upon them ; and it not disagreeing 
with the ancient treaties between the crown of England 
and the House of Burgundy . . . the purpose of the 
States being no other than by these succours to keep 
themselves in due obedience to the King their sove- 
reign, her Majesty is content to grant the aid desired." 1 
The plausible reasons advanced, however, made no differ- 
ence to Philip. It was only evident to him that the 
Queen of England was subsidising rebellion against him, 
and that her subjects held fortresses in his dominions as 

1 Hatfield Papers. 



1577] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 317 

a pledge for the money she had advanced. He could 
not afford to declare war with England at the time, but 
he did what he could. The Irish malcontents were 
encouraged with the aid of Papal money ; and Catholic 
plots, with Spanish and Guisan aid, for the rescue of 
Mary Stuart, the assassination of Elizabeth, and the like, 
kept the English court in alarm, 1 and pointed the moral 
for ever on the lips of Philip's many paid agents and 
friends in Elizabeth's counsels. 

During most of the period when the arrangements 
with the States were being concluded in 1577, Burghley 
was absent from court, and it may be fairly assumed 
that the less cautious attitude adopted towards Spain 
was owing to the unchecked influence of Leicester ; but 
with Burghley's return late in the autumn the astute 
balancing diplomacy of the master-hand becomes once 
more apparent, both in the declaration quoted above, 
and the letter drafted by the Treasurer taken by Wilkes, 
Clerk of the Council, to Madrid. In it Elizabeth prays 
Philip to have compassion upon his Flemish subjects and 
to grant their just demands, and again explains her sup- 
port of them. Moderate and deferential, however, as the 
tone of the letter was, it did not alter prior facts, and 
Philip was indignant and wrathful at what he called an 
attempt of Elizabeth to lay down the law for him. " Send 
this man off," he says, " before his fortnight is up, and 
before he commits some impertinence which will oblige 

1 See the extraordinary Italian letter of this period from Baptista de Trento 
to the Queen, in which nearly the whole of her nobility (including Leicester 
and Sussex) are accused (Hatfield Papers), and also a letter written by 
Burghley to Lord Shrewsbury, after his return from Buxton, warning him to 
keep his eyes on Mary, who was, he said, suspected of suborning some of 
Shrewsbury's servants. The persecuting Bishop of London (Aylmer) also 
wrote at the same time to Burghley urging him to "use more severity than 
hath hitherto been used ; or else we shall smart for it. For as sure as God 
liveth they look for an invasion, or else they (the Catholics) would not fall 
away as they do " (Strype's Aylmer). 



3i 8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 

us to burn him." Philip might well be angry, for he 
was impotent : he had to reconquer his own Flemings, 
Catholics and Protestants too, thanks to the aid they had 
obtained from Elizabeth. To make matters more galling, 
Antonio de Guaras had suddenly been arrested at dead 
of night, all his papers captured, his property seques- 
trated, and the poor man himself accused of consorting 
and plotting with the Queen's enemies. 1 Lord Burghley, 
his former friend, was daily threatening him with the 
rack in the Tower ; and for eighteen months he was 
treated with calculating contumely and harshness, only 
at last to be released, old, broken, and penniless, and 
sent to Spain scornfully to die. 

In January 1578, Don Juan and Farnese defeated the 
States troops at Gemblours, and it seemed as if once 
more Flanders and Brabant would fall a prey to Spanish 
soldiery. Elizabeth's aid had become less liberal with 
the return of Burghley, who had no objection at all to 
Spanish predominance in Catholic Flanders; his only 
interest there was to keep the French out. 2 But the 
Flemings naturally regarded the position from another 
point of view. What they wanted was to preserve their 
autonomous rights against Spain. Mathias had turned 
out a broken reed : he had no money, no followers, no 
friends, and no ability ; and the really dominant man in 
the Government was Protestant Orange. This did not 

1 According to his own statement the case against him was divulged to 
Burghley by some of the Catholic Flemish nobles who were aware of his 
former practices ; but there are many indications in his letters up to the time 
of his arrest, that he was a party to plots then in progress, especially one with 
Colonel Chester and others. 

2 An interesting minute on the subject, in Burghley's writing, is in Hatfield 
Papers (part ii., No. 531). Two personages were to be sent from England to 
bring about peace : one to the States, and the other to Don Juan. The States 
were to be reminded that they owed gratitude to Elizabeth for risking war 
with Spain on their behalf, and aiding them with ,£85,000 ; and the envoy was 
to point out to them the danger of their receiving French help. The French, 



1578] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 319 

please the Catholic nobles, and they cast about for 
another prince with a greater following than Mathias, 
who should at once be a Catholic and yet acceptable to 
Orange and the Protestants. Catharine had for some 
time past anticipated the position, and had been busy, 
but secretly, pushing the claims of her son Alenc,on ; but 
for her purpose it was necessary to manage warily, in 
order to avoid giving Philip open offence. Alengon, 
however, was bound by no such considerations. Nothing 
would have suited him better than to draw France 
into war with Spain. He was under arrest and strictly 
guarded, but he contrived, on the 14th February 1578, 
to escape out of a second-floor window in the Louvre. 
All France was in a turmoil. Huguenots and malcon- 
tents flocked to the Flemish frontier, and Catharine raced 
half over France to beg her errant son to return. Henry 
III. assured Mendoza, the new Spanish Ambassador on 
his way to England, that his brother was obedient, and 
he was sure he would do nothing against Philip in Flan- 
ders. But all the world knew that he would if he could ; 
and that whatever he might do with a French force there 
would be against English as well as Spanish interests. 
Once more, therefore, it was necessary for Elizabeth 
to change her policy somewhat, and Lord Burghley 
resumed his favourite character of a friend to the ancient 
Spanish alliance. 

The new Spanish Ambassador saw Elizabeth on the 

they are to be told, may either turn and side with the enemy, or try to keep the 
country for themselves. As a last resort, the English envoy is to be authorised 
to offer English aid if the States will desist from dealing with the French. 

Don Juan, on the other hand, is to be told that if he does not make terms 
with the States, the French will conquer the country, in which case the Queen 
will send such aid to the States as will enable them to hold their own against 
everybody. As usual with Burghley's minutes, there is at the end a carefully- 
balanced summary of possibilities, and courses to be pursued, all tending to the 
same end — the exclusion of the French from Flanders. The mission in ques- 
tion was that of June 1578, the envoys being Lord Cobham and Walsingham. 



320 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1578 

1 6th March 1578, and gave her all sorts of reassuring 
messages from Philip. He was the most clement of 
sovereigns. A successor to Don Juan should be appointed 
who should please everybody, and all would soon be 
settled. A few days afterwards Mendoza had a long 
conversation with Burghley, in the presence of other 
Councillors. As Philip had, said the Treasurer, practi- 
cally accepted the various concessions to the Flemings 
recommended by the Queen ; " if the terms offered were 
not accepted by the States, she herself would take up 
arms against them." This was probably too strong for 
Leicester and Walsingham, Puritans both, and Mendoza 
says they seemed to be urging something upon Burghley 
very forcibly, which he thought was the question of the 
withdrawal of the Spanish troops from Flanders ; but it 
ended in Burghley again pointedly offering the Queen's 
mediation. 

A few days later the Duke of Arschot's brother, the 
Marquis d'Havrey, Leicester's great friend, arrived in 
England to counteract Mendoza's efforts, and to beg that 
the troops that had been promised should be sent to the 
States. He was made much of by the English nobles and 
the Queen, who was now greatly influenced by Leicester, 
and Burghley at the moment seems to have stood almost 
alone in his resistance of open aid being sent to the 
States. 1 It did not take Mendoza many days to discover 
how things really lay. " I have found the Queen," he 
writes, "much opposed to your Majesty's interests, and 
most of her ministers are quite alienated from us, particu- 
larly those who are most important, as although there 
are seventeen Councillors . . . the bulk of the business 
really depends upon the Queen, Leicester, Walsingham, 
and Cecil, the latter of whom, although by virtue of his 

1 For a wonder, on this occasion Sussex sided with his enemy Leicester, 
although, as will be seen, only for a short time. 



1578] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 321 

office he takes part in the resolutions, absents himself 
from the Council on many occasions, as he is opposed to 
the Queen's helping the rebels so effectively, and thus 
weakening her own position. He does not wish, how- 
ever, to break with Leicester and Walsingham on the 
matter, they being very much wedded to the States and 
extremely self-seeking. I am assured that they are keep- 
ing the interest of the money lent to the States, besides 
the presents they have received out of the principal. 
They urge the business under the cloak of religion, 
which Cecil cannot well oppose." 1 

This, indeed, was one of the periods when Burghley's 
moderating influence was overborne by Leicester, Wal- 
singham, and the Puritans. The Lord Treasurer still 
did his best — constantly ill though he was — to stem the 
violence of the tide, befriending the bishops who were 
being bitterly attacked, 2 and counselling caution in aiding 
the Flemings against Spain ; but, as we have seen, he 
was somewhat in the background, and absented himself 
from court as much as possible. It is curious, however, 
to see, even under these circumstances, how he was 
still appealed to by all parties. He was very ill in April 
at Theobalds, and the Queen happened to be suffering 
from toothache. Of course Hatton must write to the 
Lord Treasurer, begging him to come to court and give 
his advice as to what should be done. The reply is 
very characteristic. Notwithstanding his own pain he 
would come up at once, he wrote, if by so doing he 
could relieve the Queen ; but as the physicians advised 
that the tooth should be extracted, though they dared 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

- Grindall, Archbishop of Canterbury, had been deprived by the Queen 
for neglecting to suppress the "prophesying"; and Sandys, Archbishop of 
York, was also in disgrace ; but, as Strype says, " his good friend Lord 
Burghley stood up for him." He certainly did so in the case of Grindall, who 
kept up a constant correspondence with the "good Lord Treasurer." 

X 



322 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1578 

not tell the Queen so, all he could do would be to urge 
her Majesty to have it done." 1 Hatton did not care to 
incur the responsibility of saying so himself, and simply 
showed the Queen Burghley's letter. Doubtless Eliza- 
beth took the good advice tendered ; for it was only a 
day or two afterwards that young Gilbert Talbot, Lord 
Shrewsbury's son, was walking in the Tilt Yard, White- 
hall, one morning, under the Queen's windows, when 
her maiden Majesty herself came to the casement in her 
night-dress, in full view of Talbot, who wrote : " My eye 
fell towards her, and she showed to be greatly ashamed 
thereof, for that she was unready and in her night-stuff ; 
so when she saw me after dinner as she went to walk, 
she gave me a great fillip on the forehead, and told the 
Lord Chamberlain how I had seen her that morning, 
and how ashamed she was." Talbot, in writing this to 
his father (1st May 1578) ends his letter by saying that 
the Queen was that week to stay three or four days 
with Burghley at Theobalds. It is plain to see that 
the renewed severity against the Catholics in England, 
and the almost ostentatious aiding of the States against 
Spain, did not meet with the approval of Burghley. He 
was much more concerned for the moment at the large 
levies of French troops being collected on the Flemish 
frontier ; and his ordinary policy would have been either 
to side with the Spaniards against them, or to have dis- 
armed their figurehead Alencon (or Anjou as he was now 
called) by holding out hopes of his marriage with the 
Queen, if the earnest attempts of the English to mediate 
between the States and Don Juan were fruitless. But 
he had to reckon with Leicester and Walsingham, and 
the Queen's policy wavered almost daily between her 
two sets of counsellors. 2 

1 Add. MSS., 15,891 ; 21st April 1578. 

2 To such an extent was this so, that whilst, according to Mendoza, money 



1578] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 323 

To the Queen's visit to Theobalds is doubtless due 
the entry in Burghley's diary of 15th May, recording the 
despatch of Edward Stafford to inspect and report upon 
the French forces on the Flemish frontier. Alencon him- 
self used every effort to convince the Queen of his desire 
to look to her, rather than to his brother, as his guide and 
support. On the 19th May he sent her a letter by one 
of his friends, informing her of his intention of relieving 
the Netherlands ; " of which intention/' he says, " she 
already knows so much that he will not tire her by 
explaining it further." On the 7th July he crossed the 
frontier, and threw himself into Mons for the purpose, 
as he declared, "of helping this oppressed people, and 
humiliating the pride of Spain ; " and at the same time 
he sent his chamberlain to offer marriage to Elizabeth, 
and assure her of his complete dependence upon her. 
It was unwelcome news for Elizabeth, for she could 
never trust the French. Alengon, after all, was a Catho- 
lic, and she was uncertain whether Henry III. was not 
really behind his brother. Gondi, one of the leaders of 
Catharine's counsels, had recently come to England with 
a request to be allowed to see Mary Stuart ; 1 Catholic 

and men were constantly being sent to Flanders, and Leicester and Walsing- 
ham were planning the murder of Don Juan and the expulsion of Mendoza 
from England, '* I can assure your Majesty that the Earl of Sussex is sincerely 
attached to your Majesty's interests, and Cecil also, though not so openly. 
But if he and Sussex are properly treated they will both be favourable, and 
their good disposition will be much strengthened when they see it rewarded." 
His suggestion was that Burghley and Sussex should be granted large pensions. 
It will be observed that Sussex had already broken free from Leicester. 

1 Elizabeth appears to have been very angry about Gondi's mission. " She 
told him," says Mendoza, "loudly in the audience chamber, that she knew 
very well he had come to disturb her country, and to act in favour of the worst 
woman in the world, whose head should have been struck off long ago. She 
was sure he had not come with the knowledge of his King, but only of some of 
those who surrounded him. Gondi replied that the Queen of Scots was a 
sovereign, as she was, and her own kinswoman, and it was not surprising 
that efforts should be made on her behalf. The Queen answered him angrily, 



324 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1578 

intrigues in Scotland had succeeded in putting an end to 
Morton's regency (March 1578) ; and on all sides there 
were indications that, if Elizabeth could only be dragged 
into open hostility to Spain, and so rendered powerless, 
an attempt would be made on the part of France to 
recover its lost influence over Scotland. Mendoza care- 
fully fanned the flame of Elizabeth's distrust against the 
French ; and the effect of Walsingham's absence in 
Flanders, whilst Leicester was away at Buxton, is notice- 
able at once. " The Queen," writes Mendoza (19th July), 
" is now turning her eyes more to your Majesty ; and her 
ministers have begun to get friendly with me. If your 
Majesty wishes to retain them, I see a way of doing it." 1 
Alencon's agents in the meanwhile were not idle. 
One after the other came to assure her of their master's 
desire to marry her, and look to her alone for guidance. 
He had quarrelled with his brother, he said, and had 
no other mistress than the Queen of England. They 
quite convinced Sussex, apparently, for he entered 
warmly into their marriage plans, which gave him an- 
other chance of revenge upon Leicester. Elizabeth's 
desire to be amiable to Alencon's envoys at Long 
Melford during her progress (August) led her to insult 
Sussex, as Lord Steward, about the amount of plate on 
the sideboard. This gave an opportunity for Lord 
North, a creature of Leicester, to give Sussex the lie, 
and led to a further feud which continued for months. 2 

that she should never be free as long as she lived, even if it cost her (Eliza- 
beth) her realm and her own liberty. The Queen-mother, she said, must 
surely know what Mary had attempted against her." (5th May 1578 ; Spanish 
State Papers, Elizabeth.) 

1 Mendoza dilates much upon the venality of the English Council, and 
says, " I am told by a person in the palace, that, even in the matter of giving 
me audience readily, the Queen has been considerably influenced by the gloves 
and perfumes I gave her when I arrived." 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, and also a letter from Sussex to 
Burghley in November, printed by Lodge, vol. ii. ; also Sussex to Burghley, 



1578] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 325 

But though Elizabeth was somewhat tranquillised with 
regard to the French King's connivance in Alengon's pro- 
ceedings, she was cool about the marriage business. " If 
the Prince liked to come, she told De Bacqueville, he 
might do so ; but he must not take offence if she did not 
like him when she saw him ; " whereupon Burghley told 
the envoy that if he were in his place he would not bring 
his master over on such a message. All the charming 
of Alencon's attractive agents was unsuccessful in opening 
the Queen's money bags, and the loan of 300,000 crowns 
they prayed for was refused. If he wanted her aid or 
affection, she said, he must first obey her and retire from 
Flanders, and she would then consider what she should 
do. Pressure was put upon Alengon by his brother, by 
the Pope and the Catholics, on the other hand, to desist 
from his enterprise. Splendid Catholic alliances were 
proposed to him, and dire threats of punishment held 
out if he did not retire. When the Protestant Hollanders 
discovered that Alengon could count neither upon Eng- 
land nor France to support him, they began to cry off. 
The only temptation they had in welcoming a Catholic 
prince was the hope of national aid. If he did not bring 
that, he was as useless to them as poor Mathias had 
been. And so all through the autumn of 1578 the fate 
of Flanders hung on Elizabeth's caprice. Henry III. 
was anxious to get his brother married to Elizabeth, and 
a fresh national alliance concluded ; but he wished to 
avoid pledging himself against Spain, so as to be able to 
hold the balance. Elizabeth's aim was similar, and she 
would promise nothing ; but she swore both to Flemings 
and Spaniards that for every Frenchman that set foot in 
Flanders there should be an Englishman. Fresh German 

Hatfield Papers, part ii., where he mentions that "Burghley also had been 
ill-used by lewd speech. I will on all occasions stick as near to you as your 
shirt is to your back." (5th November 1578.) 



326 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1578 

mercenaries were raised at her expense to aid the States ; 
renewed attempts, backed by threats, were made to per- 
suade Don Juan to ratify the pacification of Ghent ; but 
Alengon, in the meanwhile, with a dwindling force and 
no money, was falling to the ground between the two 
stools of France and England, Huguenot or Catholic. 
At the end of the year ominous news came that the 
Huguenots had been won over by the Queen-mother ; * 
that the King of France had entered into a great Catholic 
league against Elizabeth, and was raising a force of mer- 
cenaries in Germany to help Alen^on to keep a footing 
in Flanders, in spite of England ; whilst a Scottish noble- 
man, a Douglas, was at the French court carrying on 
some secret intrigue with Henry III. 

Elizabeth was alarmed at this, and at once became 
warm in the Alengon marriage, thanks partly also to the 
arrival of the Prince's agent Simier, who very soon estab- 
lished a complete influence over the Queen, to the infinite 
scandal of all Europe. Against this influence Mendoza, 
able, bold, and crafty, battled ceaselessly : for ever point- 
ing at the intrigues of the French in Scotland, their old 
jealousy of England, the approaching marriageable age of 
the King of Scots, which would give an opportunity for 
recovering French influence in his country, and much 
more to the same effect. After one conversation of this 
sort with the Queen, late in January 1579, Mendoza 
drove his points home one by one to Burghley and 
Sussex, showing them how much more profitable was an 
alliance with Spain than with France, and the danger of 
England herself being attacked if she took the Nether- 
lands rebels under her protection. Amongst other things 
Burghley replied that "he had told M. Simier that one 
of the principal arguments in favour of the marriage, 

1 This was true. The treaty of Nerac was signed in February 1579 by 
Henry of Navarre, now the acknowledged leader. 



1578] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 327 

namely, that Alencon might become King of France, 
had turned him (Cecil) against it, as he considered that 
it would be a disadvantage to England, whereupon 
Simier had complained of him to the Queen. For his 
own part his desire had always been to see the Queen 
married to a prince of the House of Austria, with which 
it was well to be in alliance ; but since old friends cast 
them off, and your Majesty refused to confirm the 
treaties, or receive a minister at your court, 1 they must 
seek new friends." 

The current of affairs and the Queen's fickleness 
evidently displeased the Lord Treasurer. In September 
(1578) he had unsuccessfully begged leave of absence to 
visit Burghley, 2 where the rebuilding of the mansion was 
still progressing, under the care of Sir Thomas Cecil. He 
was not allowed to go ; but the plague raged in London 
all the autumn, and Burghley retreated to Theobalds, 
where he was within easy reach of the Council. He 
found, moreover, Leicester's enmity towards him more 
active than ever, 3 and Hatton, now his chief henchman, 
for Sussex was unstable, was of inferior rank, influence, 
and ability. But though his political influence for a 
time was under a cloud, there was no abatement of the 
appeals to his judgment and for his intercession with the 
Queen. Imprisoned Catholics, deprived Puritans, old 
friends, like the Duchess of Suffolk, Lord Lincoln, or 
the Earl of Bedford, claimed his advice in their affairs ; 
suitors at law besought his good word ; miners or ex- 
plorers prayed for his patronage ; bishops bespoke his aid 
to govern their clergy ; the clergy appealed to him against 
the bishops. High and humble, friend and stranger, 

1 Cobham, Wilkes, and Smith had all been sent back with a short answer. 

2 Sir Thomas Cecil to Burghley, and Lord Lincoln to the same (Hatfield 
Papers). 

3 Hatton to Burghley, 28th September 1578 (Hatfield Papers). 



328 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1579 

rich and poor alike, looked to Burghley for guidance, 
and found at least patient consideration for their causes. 1 
By the beginning of 1579, however, the aspect of 
European politics had become so threatening that the 
practised hand of the Lord Treasurer was needed at the 
helm, and thenceforward his influence was again in the 
ascendant. Simier was making violent vicarious love to 
the Queen, and letters of the most extravagant descrip- 
tion were exchanged between the young Prince and 
Elizabeth, whilst really sincere and earnest efforts were 
being made in favour of the match by Henry III. and 
Catharine de Medici. Commissioners and ambassadors 
went backwards and forwards, and the conditions, not 
only of the Queen's marriage, but of a national offensive 
and defensive alliance between France and England, 
were under discussion. Henry III. was ready, he said, 
to submit to any conditions desired by Elizabeth, and 
Alencon was almost blasphemous in his praising of 
the charms of his elderly flame. There were two 
main reasons for this drawing together of England and 
France. Don Juan was dead, and the military genius 
and diplomacy of Alexander Farnese had once more 
separated Catholic Belgium from Protestant Holland 
(Treaty of Arras, January 1579). Orange himself still 
clung to the hope of consolidating a united Flemish 
nation, including north and south, and desired to use 
Alengon, with the Queen of England's support, for that 
purpose but there was no enthusiasm in Holland for 
the idea ; and in the meanwhile Alengon was isolated in 
Catholic Flanders, with his own brother raging at the 
compromising position in which he placed him, and 
ordering him to return to France. It was evident to 
Henry that the only way in which his turbulent brother 

1 There are many hundreds of such letters as these at Hatfield and in the 
Lansdowne MSS. 



1579] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 329 

could be established in Flanders, without causing both 
Spanish and English arms to be used against him, was 
to let him depend solely upon Elizabeth and Orange, 
whilst France stood aloof. This was one of the reasons 
for the closer relations desired by Catharine and her 
son. The other was more important still. The young 
King of Portugal had fallen in battle in Morocco, and 
the new King was an aged, childless Cardinal. Philip 
of Spain was already intriguing for the succession, which 
he claimed. The possession of the fine harbours and 
Atlantic seaboard of Portugal by Spain would enor- 
mously increase her maritime potency, to the detriment 
of England and France ; and it was felt that these 
powers must unite to resist the common danger. That 
Lord Burghley was early alive to its importance is 
proved by a genealogical statement of his relating to 
the Portuguese succession immediately after the death 
of the King Don Sebastian 1 (August 1578), and several 
memoranda of subsequent date on the subject. 

Under these circumstances the Alengon approaches 
again became to all appearance serious. The Prince, 
ceding to the pressure placed upon him, consented to 
retire from Flanders early in the year, and was reconciled 
to his brother ; and then the arrangements for effective 
action in the Netherlands and a visit of Alengon to England 
were actively proceeded with. How busy Lord Burghley 
was in the matter will be seen by the very voluminous 
minutes in his own hand of the discussions in Council 
on the subject (Hatfield Papers). In all probability the 
Queen was not even now sincere in the matter of the 
marriage, especially as Leicester and Hatton pretended 
to be warmly in favour of it, until they became per- 
sonally jealous of Simier ; but Burghley was evidently 
doubtful. In his balancing papers he gives much more 

1 Hatfield State Papers, part ii. 



330 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1579 

space to the "perils" than to the advantages of the 
match, and his own final judgment is, that " except 
that her Majesty would of her own mind incline to 
marriage he would never advise thereto." In the mean- 
while, all England was in a veritable panic at the idea of 
the marriage of the Queen to a Papist. Puritan pulpits 
rang with denunciations ; Stubbs' famous book, " The 
Discovery of a Gaping Gulph," which cost the author 
his right hand and deeply offended the Queen, was read 
widely ; and the Queen herself was obliged to warn her 
eager suitor of the hatred of her people to the idea of his 
proposed visit. But the preparations went on, and the 
court was ordered to make itself as fine as money would 
make it, Leicester alone sending to Flanders for twelve 
hundred pounds' worth of silks, velvets, and cloth of 
gold. Simier in the meanwhile was daily becoming more 
clamorous for a definite answer to his master's proposal. 
Large bribes were paid by the French Ambassador and 
Mendoza respectively to the Councillors to forward or 
impede the match, and the probabilities shifted from 
day to day. 1 

When the Queen seemed really bent upon the match, 
Burghley did not attempt to oppose her; he simply placed 
before her the arguments for and against it, and left the 
decision to her. This is exactly what Elizabeth did not 
wish. Simier and her own imprudence had drawn her 
into an extremely dangerous position, and she wished her 
Council to assume the responsibility of extricating her 

1 Mendoza, writing on 8th April, says, " Lord Burghley is not so much 
opposed to the match as formerly ; but I cannot discover whether he and 
Sussex have changed their minds because they think that they may thus bring 
about the fall of Leicester, and avenge themselves upon him for old grievances, 
and for his having advanced to the office of Chancellor an enemy of theirs " 
{i.e. Bromley). On another occasion, when the Queen learned of the Papal- 
Spanish expedition to Ireland to aid the Desmonds in Munster, she was so 
much alarmed that she dropped the French negotiations for some days and 
refused to see Simier. 



1579] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 331 

from it. Her first object in resuming the negotiations had 
been to gQt Alencon and the French out of Flanders, 
whilst preventing the despair and collapse of Orange ; her 
present aim was to secure the King of France to her side, 
and weaken Spain without herself being drawn into open 
hostility. The talk of marriage helped her in this ; but if 
once she fell into the trap, and was married indeed, her 
power of balance would be gone. Driven into a corner, 
late in April she took Simier and the French Ambassador, 
with Burghley, Leicester, Sussex, and Walsingham, to 
Wanstead, where she desired the Councillors to give her 
in writing their individual opinions, in order that she might 
show them to the Frenchmen. They refused to do so, 
and once more laid before her the " perils and advan- 
tages " of each course, leaving her to decide. The Coun- 
cillors mentioned sat in conference almost day and night 
during their three days' stay at Wanstead, but, after all, 
returned as they came. Simier was furious, and threat- 
ened to go back to France ; and a full Council sat at 
Whitehall on the 3rd May, from two o'clock in the day 
till two the next morning, finally to discuss the question. 
It was found that the only man really in favour of the 
marriage was Sussex, and Simier was called in and in- 
formed that his master's conditions were unacceptable. 
The envoy roared out that he had been played with, and 
flung out of the room to make his complaint to the Queen. 
She was all sympathy. She wanted to get married — she 
must get married. It was all the fault of her Councillors, 
and so forth, until her ruffled " ape," as she called him, 
was pacified. Alencon was not lightly put off. He an- 
nounced his intention of coming to see his goddess, no 
matter what the consequences might be. The Queen 
was for refusing him leave, but Lord Burghley pointed 
out to her the danger of this open affront to a French 
prince. She had gone too far to refuse, and she was 




332 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1579 

obliged to give a passport. Simier rarely left the Queen's 
side now, and she seems quite to have lost her head. 
Mendoza worked hard to spread the sinister murmurs 
of her behaviour through the country. Leicester grew 
violently jealous, and twice hired an assassin to kill 
Simier, which he nearly did once in the Queen's own 
barge. The Queen was beside herself with rage, and 
Simier, to revenge himself upon Leicester, told the 
Queen, as no one else had dared to do, of the marriage 
of Leicester with Lady Essex. It was a master-stroke. 
The Queen's fury was boundless, and she swore like 
a trooper at Leicester and the she-wolf he had married. 
For a time Leicester's influence was gone, and Simier 
lived in the palace of Greenwich, to the open disgust of 
the English people. In August, Alencon rushed over to 
England in disguise. His coming was an open secret, 
but the Queen kept him hid in the palace of Greenwich. 1 
She posed before him, showed off all her charms, dined 
and supped with him in private, fell desperately in love 
with him, or pretended to do so, and sent him off after a 
week's stay as secretly as he came, with expressions of 
affection on both sides, even too fervid to be sincere, 
and long afterwards continued by correspondence. 

Whatever might be the final result of the marriage 
negotiations — and Burghley himself was as much in the 
dark as any one on that point — a close alliance between 
France and England was of growing importance to both 
, countrie_s ir &The English Council under Burghley sat at 
Greenwich^ almost continuously from the 2nd to the 8th 
October discussing, weighing, and reporting upon the 
whole question of alliance and marriage. The final result 

1 It has not been noticed by Burghley's biographers that, true to his cautious 
character, he found an excuse for going into Northamptonshire shortly before 
Alencon arrived in London. He writes an interesting letter to Hatton from 
Althorpe, dated 9th August (Nicholas's " Life of Hatton"), in reply to the ad- 
vices respecting the fortifying of the Papal force at Dingle, in Kerry. The 



1579] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 333 

was that the marriage would be undesirable, Burghley 
and Sussex being the only Councillors who were not 
strongly opposed to it. 1 The message to the Queen was 
delivered by Burghley. It was ambiguous and moderate, 
begged the Queen to tell the Council her own mind, 
and so on ; but there was no doubt of the meaning of it 
to the Queen. The Council was against the match, unless 
some guarantee could be found that the Protestant reli- 
gion should not be imperilled* Burghley's minute sets 
fui th the Q rree ir ' s -an sw er." -^'She shed many tears to find 
that her Councillors, by their long disputations, should 
make it doubtful whether it would be safe for her to 
marry and have a child." She was a simpleton, she said, 
to have referred the question to them. She expected 
they would have unanimously begged her to marry, 
instead of raising doubts about it. V When they saw her 
again later in the day she was more angry still. She 
railed at those who would think of " surety " before her 
happiness, " and that any should think so slenderly of 
her " as to doubt that she would take care that religion 
was properly safeguarded if she married. She managed, 
as usual, to reduce the Council to a state of confusion 
with her tears and reproaches ; and a hasty meeting was 
called, at which a resolution was passed to the effect, that 

ships must be sent against them, he says, double-manned, " as there is no good 
access by land." He is very jealous of foreigners setting foot in Ireland, for 
fear any " discontentation grow betwixt France and us upon a breach of this 
interview (i.e. with Aleneon), or if the King of Spain shall be free from his 
troubles in the Low Country." He approves of the agreement of Cologne and 
the pacification of Ghent, whereby Holland and Zeeland were to remain Protes- 
tant, and Flanders Catholic, rather than the war should go on. " On Tuesday 
morning we will be at Northampton, where after noon we mean to hear the 
babbling matters of the town for the causes of religion, wishing that we may 
accord them all in mind and action ; at least we will draw them to follow one 
line by the rule of the laws, or else make the contrariant feel the sharpness 
of the same law." On the same day Burghley wrote a vigorous letter to 
Walsingham directing energetic action in Ireland. 

1 Burghley's minutes of the deliberations are in Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



334 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1579 

as the Queen seemed so much bent upon the marriage, 
the Councillors all offered their services to promote it. 
When this message was taken to her, Lord Burghley 
records that "her Majesty's answers were very sharp 
in reprehending all such as she thought would make 
arguments against her marriage, and though she thought 
it not meet to declare to them whether she would marry 
with Monsieur or no, yet she looked from their hands that 
they should with one accord have made a special suit to 
her for the same." 1 
^""^^ftwWaMd^ such a change on the part of 

the Queen from morning to afternoon, the Councillors 
were at their wits' end to know what she really meant ; 
but it is evident that she intended to have her own way, 
whatever it was, and lay the responsibility upon others. 
Burghley and Sussex had avoided open opposition, and 
were favourably regarded by the Queen in consequence ; 
whilst Leicester, Walsingham, Knollys, and even her 
poor "sheep" Hatton, came in for a share of her 
vituperation and abuse ; and the Puritans who were 
leading the outcry against the match received harder 
measure than ever. 

Early in November she summoned the Council again, 
and told them that she had decided to marry. It was 
only for them now to consider the means. Let them, she 
said, individually put their opinions in writing. It was 
evident that this course would again bring forward the 
dissensions on the subject, and render it more difficult, 
which was perhaps her intention. Simier went and told 
her so, whereupon she asked him angrily how he knew 
what orders she had given to her Council. He replied 
that Lord Burghley had told him. " Surely," she cried, 
"it is possible for my Councillors to keep a secret. I 
will see to this." Then she sent orders to the Council to 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 335 

write a letter to Alengon, asking him to come to England 
quickly, which they refused to do. He was, they said, 
coming to marry her, not them, and she ought to write 
herself. They openly quarrelled with Simier, who was 
finding England too hot for him, and who left late in 
November, taking with him a hastily patched draft agree- 
ment for the marriage, in which the Queen characteris- 
tically introduced at the last hour an additional loophole 
of escape, by stipulating that the articles should remain 
in suspense for two months, "during which time the 
Queen hopes to have brought her people to consent. If 
before that time she did not write consenting to receive 
ambassadors for the conclusion of the treaty, the whole 
of the conditions would be void." 1 

The year 1580 opened full of anxiety for Elizabeth. 
The ostentatious fitting out of the Spanish fleet, and the 
active support by Spain and the Pope of the Desmond 
rebellion, the success of Parma, and the desperate at- 
tempts of Orange to reunite Flanders with Holland under 
Alengon in the national cause, were all so many dangers 
to England. If Elizabeth offended France or alienated 
Alengon himself, Flemish affairs might be settled without 
her participation, and to her detriment, and she would 
have to face Spain alone. This was the more to be 
feared, as religious affairs in England were in a worse 
condition than before, and for the first time since her 
accession the Queen herself was unpopular. Her light 
conduct with Simier, and, above all, her seeming deter- 
mination in favour of the Alengon marriage, had aroused 
all the old hatred against the French, and had embittered 
the widespread Puritan distrust of the " Papists." The 

1 The original draft of the protocol in Simier's handwriting is in the Hat- 
field Papers. A most valuable digest or "time-table/' in Burghley's hand- 
writing, of the whole of the negotiations for the Queen's marriage up to the 
period of Simier's departure, will be found in the Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



336 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

country was being flooded with seminary priests, speci- 
ally trained for the propaganda to which they devoted 
their lives, 1 and the great Catholic party in England, 
having recovered somewhat from the blow of the Norfolk 
conspiracy, were once more holding up their heads. 
Elizabeth had allowed Leicester and her own passions 
to lead her too far, and she struggled to free herself 
from the toils. When she tried in January to withdraw 
gently from the Aleneon negotiations, and suggested to 
Henry III. that some fresh conditions were necessary, she 
found it difficult. The King was determined to throw 
the responsibility of breaking upon her, and it still suited 
him to keep up an appearance of friendship. She could, 
he replied, make her own stipulations ; he would accept 
them. As for religion, that was his brother's affair. 
Aleneon himself also said that he would come over at 
once to England and leave everything to her. He hoped 
she was not reviving the religious question for the purpose 
of deceiving him again, as some people said ; but he 
would risk everything for his love. He went so far as to 
beg her to forgive Leicester for his sake, and blamed 
Simier for quarrelling with the Earl. 

But Leicester, Hatton, and Walsingham were quite 
determined now to stop the marriage, which looked too 
serious to please them ; and a cloud of questions about 
religion, rank of ambassadors, &c, soon threw the matter 
into obscurity again. How completely affairs had 
changed in this respect in a few weeks is seen in the long 
draft of a letter to the Queen at Hatfield, dated at end of 
January 1580, in the handwriting of Sir Thomas Cecil, 
although it can hardly have been really written by him 
to the Queen, but certainly represents the views of his 

1 Allen's famous English seminary had been transferred to Rheims under 
the patronage of the Guises, and a great number of young priests were con- 
tinually sent into England, especially after 1579, the first members of the 
Jesuit mission, Persons and Campion, arriving in 1580. 



1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 337 

father. Burghley had struggled during all his ministry, 
and often against great difficulties, to preserve peace 
with Spain, whilst holding high England's honour and 
prosperity ; but now that Leicester and the extreme 
Protestant party, together with Philip's seizure of Portu- 
gal, had forced the Queen into a position which sooner 
or later must end in hostility to Spain, and perhaps 
with France also, Burghley urged the need for a close 
understanding with France, on the safest terms possible 
for his country. 

The course now taken by the Queen seemed to 
render inevitable that which Burghley had all his life 
endeavoured to avoid, namely, the isolation of England 
with both of the great powers against her. The address 
above referred to lays down that, so long as the Queen 
was favourable to the Alengon marriage, the writer was 
willing to sacrifice his life for it. He still maintains that 
it is the only safe course, and one which should enable 
the Queen to " rule the sternes of the shippes of Europe 
with more fame than ever came to any Quene of the 
Worelld." But finding her Majesty utterly against it, he 
proposes such remedies as are necessary, at least for 
comparative safety. He points out that she cannot 
expect that France and Alen^on will sit down patiently 
under the slight, though they may dissemble for a time ; 
and he suggests that Alengon should be diverted from 
allying himself with Spain, by encouraging his enterprise 
in the Netherlands, dangerous though such a course was 
to England. All Papists should be dismissed from 
positions of trust ; the army, navy, and fortifications 
should be placed on a war-footing ; mercenary Germans 
should be bespoken ; fresh vents for English commerce 
should be sought ; 1 the Irish should be conciliated, and 

1 Mendoza at this period writes to the King of the enormous number of 
ships being built. "This," he says, "makes the English almost masters of 

Y 



338 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

their just grievances remedied, and " certain private dis- 
orders in Ireland winked at." The Queen of Scots should 
be brought to a safer place farther south, and repress- 
ive precautions taken against her friends in England. 
Whoever may have given this remarkable state paper 
to Elizabeth, 1 it is certain that the advice contained in 
it was followed. Orders were given to bring Mary 
Stuart to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 2 the mild and lenient Lord 
Shrewsbury being reinforced in his guard by Sir Ralph 
Sadler and two other known Protestants ; 3 a general 
muster of militia was summoned, 90,000 men in all ; 
London was called upon for 4000 armed men ; the 
Queen's navy, seventeen ships, was mobilised ; 4 and 
negotiations were opened for Conde and a Huguenot 
force, with a number of mercenary German Protestants, 
to enter Flanders. 5 It was considered rightly that if a 

the commerce ... as they have a monopoly of shipping, whereby they profit 
by all the freights." Burghley was an untiring promoter of extension of 
legitimate trade, as he was a constant enemy to piracy. He was at this time 
promoting Humphrey Gilbert's colonisation schemes in North America, the 
enterprises of Frobisher and his friends in Hudson's Bay, the trade of the 
Muscovy Company, the overland route to the Caspian by the White Sea and 
the Volga, and other similar adventures ; but, as we shall have occasion to see 
later, he disapproved entirely of Drake's proceedings in the Pacific, and other 
expeditions of a wantonly aggressive character. 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 

2 Sadler State Papers. 

3 The intention, however, was not carried out. In the summer Lord 
Shrewsbury wrote to Lady Burghley asking her to prevail upon her husband 
to obtain the Queen's permission for Mary Stuart to go to Buxton and 
Chatsworth. Lady Burghley in her reply suggests that the Queen was angry 
and refused. Mary, however, did go to Buxton later, but not to Chatsworth. 

4 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. Burghley's interest in naval affairs 
was great. He had, when danger threatened from Alba, in the summer of 
1578, elaborated a scheme for the mobilisation of the navy, and had put 
fourteen ships into commission. The Council appear to have addressed to 
him most of their minutes respecting naval organisation, instead of to the 
Lord Admiral. 

5 The Duke Hans Casimir was in England at the time (January 1580), 
and took a large sum of money back with him for the purpose in question. 






1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 339 

large body of Huguenots depending entirely upon Eng- 
land were by Alencon's side, it would not only prevent 
his brother from supporting him, but would render his 
enterprise in Flanders less dangerous to England. 

Concurrently with these precautions, the Queen re- 
newed her extravagant love correspondence with Alengon. 
There is no more remarkable instance than this of the 
consummate statesmanship of Burghley. The country 
had been driven out of the straight course in which he 
had held it so long, and was rapidly nearing the breakers. 
The document now under consideration laid before the 
Queen the only course which could avert destruction, 
and this course, as we see, she wisely took. If Burghley 
had openly opposed Leicester and Walsingham from the 
first, he would probably have fallen into disgrace, and 
have lost his influence entirely ; but by holding aloof 
and tempering their policy only, he was able, when catas- 
trophe impended, to lead the ship of state into a harbour 
of comparative safety. Under the influence of fear and 
Burghley, the Queen at the same time became most ami- 
able to the Spaniards again. She assured Mendoza (20th 
February) that " she would never make war upon your 
Majesty, unless you began it first, which she could not 
believe by any means you would do." She was, she said, 
a sister to Philip. " She had always done her best for 
the tranquillity of the Netherlands, and to prevent the 
French from getting a footing there." Mendoza spoke 
some hard truths to her, but she was very humble. 

A few days afterwards, when the French Ambassador 
had been driving her into a corner about Alencon, and 
threatening that the Prince would publish her letters, 
she was closeted in her chamber at Whitehall with 
Burghley and Archbishop Sandys. " Here am I," she 
cried, " between Scylla and Charybdis. Alencon has 
agreed to all my conditions, and wants to know when 



340 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

he is to come and marry me. If I fail he will probably 
quarrel with me, and if I marry him I shall not be able 
to govern the country. What shall I do ? " Sandys 
gave a courtier-like reply, and Burghley was silent. The 
Queen was impatient at this, and roughly told him 
he was purposely absenting himself from the Council. 
What was his advice ? Thus pressed, the Lord Trea- 
surer replied that if it was her pleasure to marry she 
should do so, as Alencon had accepted the terms which 
rendered her safe. "That," said the Queen, "is not the 
opinion of the rest of the Council, but that I should keep 
him in play." Burghley was aware of this already, and 
dryly told the Queen that those who tried to trick princes 
generally ended by being caught themselves. But Eliza- 
beth knew her profound powers of dissimulation better 
even than Burghley did, and went on her way. The 
Lord Treasurer stood almost alone among the coun- 
cillors in his mild and cautious policy. Sussex, in deep 
dudgeon, was generally at his mansion at Newhall ; and, 
as we have seen, Burghley himself avoided as much as 
possible incurring responsibility for the present action of 
the Queen, except so far as to advise her how to render 
her policy as little harmful as possible. But it is evident 
that Elizabeth, in moments of difficulty like this, always 
turned away from Leicester, and sought the sounder aid 
of the Lord Treasurer. 

Leicester, in March, pretended to fall ill, and during 
his absence from court completely turned round. Now 
that Lord Burghley was urging for a close friendship 
with France, since Leicester's policy had alienated Spain, 
the Earl, with characteristic instability, suddenly pro- 
fessed to Mendoza a desire to " serve the King of Spain." 
His enemies, he said, were plotting this French alliance 
and marriage only to spite him, and he would bring the 
Queen to a close friendship to Spain. The Queen was, 






i5*>] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 341 

doubtless, aware of Leicester's change ; because when 
Castelnau, the French Ambassador, addressed Elizabeth 
with an important message from Catharine, proposing that 
a joint effort should be made to prevent the domination 
of Portugal by Philip (17th April 1580), he was referred 
to Burghley alone, and only after the decision had been 
adopted not to commence hostilities, as suggested, was 
Leicester let into the secret. Dangerous as it was to 
England that Philip should dominate Portugal, it was 
of more importance to France ; and it was determined 
to cast upon the latter power, if possible, the responsi- 
bility of preventing it. 

The prospect of a serious cause for dissension between 
France and Spain was, indeed, a welcome one for Eliza- 
beth, and she made the most of it. The star of Morton 
in Scotland was waning fast, and D'Aubigny, Earl of 
Lennox, had already gained a complete command of the 
young King's affection. Mary Stuart from her captivity 
was taking the grave step of laying herself, her country, 
and her child at the feet of the King of Spain, with the 
acquiescence this time of the Duke of Guise. The English 
Government, however, was not yet aware of this, and 
looked upon France as more likely than Spain to influ- 
ence Scotland under D'Aubigny. 1 Division in France 
was consequently promoted by Leicester and his party. 
Alengon was warned not to be too pliant in agreeing 

1 This was actually the case at the time so far as Scotland itself as apart 
from Mary was concerned. There is in the Hatfield Papers of this date (1580) 
a fervent appeal from James VI. to the King of France, begging for assistance 
in force to release his mother, and support him against his heretic subjects. 
Mendoza also reports (4th September 1580) that Guise had just recognised 
James's title of King for the first time, and that intimate relations were being 
formed between the courts of Scotland and France. This probably arose from 
the long delay of the reply from Spain to Mary, Guise, and the Archbishop of 
Glasgow, relative to their offer of complete submission to Philip. The whole 
matter, however, was changed in the following year, and thenceforward Mary 
and her friends depended upon Spain alone. 



342 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

with his brother ; and when Conde and Navarre once 
again raised the Huguenot standard, the former rushed 
over to England to beseech for funds (June 1580), and 
was received several times in secret by the Queen and 
Leicester. He immediately sent a message to his ad- 
herents in France that all was well, and that assistance 
would be given to him. 

After some days the Queen sent word to Castelnau, 
the French Ambassador, saying that she had heard that 
Conde was in England, but she would not receive him 
except in the Ambassador's presence. Burghley, writing 
to Sussex, says that on arriving at Nonsuch from Theo- 
balds, " I came hither about five o'clock, and repairing 
towards the Privy Chamber to see her Majesty, I found 
the door at the upper end shut, and understood that the 
French Ambassador and the Prince of Conde" had been 
a long time there with her Majesty, with none others of 
the Council but my Lord of Leicester and Mr. Vice- 
Chamberlain Hatton." After the audience Castelnau went 
to Burghley and complained of Cond6 for raising dis- 
turbances in France. " He augmenteth his suspicions 
upon the sight of the great favours shown to the Prince 
of Conde by certain Councillors here, whom he under- 
standeth have been many times with him (Conde) at the 
banqueting-house where he is lodged." The Queen told 
Burghley that Conde had asked for a contribution of 
one-third of the cost of a Huguenot rising, the King of 
Navarre and the German Protestants paying the other 
two-thirds ; but the Lord Treasurer's opinion of it is 
sufficiently expressed in the following words, which 
probably decided the question, for Conde did not get 
the aid he sought notwithstanding Leicester's efforts : 
" I wish her Majesty may spend some portion to solicit 
them for peace . . . but to enter into war and therewith 
to break the marriage, and so to be left alone as subject 



1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 343 

to the burden of such a war, I think no good counsellor 
can allow." * 

The fact that he had not been personally consulted 
earlier did not apparently ruffle Lord Burghley. In his 
quiet, prudent way he brought things round to his view, 
without caring for the personal aspect. Not so, irritable, 
hot-tempered Sussex. He replied in boiling indignation 
against Leicester — " I have never heard word from my 
Lord Leicester, Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, or Mr. Secretary 
Walsingham, of the coming of the Prince of Condd, or 
of his expectations, or to seek to know what I thought 
fit to do in his cause ; whereby I see either they seek 
to keep the whole from me, or else care little for my 
opinion . . . perhaps at my coming some of them will 
mislike I am made such a stranger ... I can give as 
good a sound opinion as the best of them ... I am 
very loath to see my sovereign lady to be violently 
drawn into war." 2 In any case, Burghley's unaided 
efforts were sufficient to prevent the Queen from giving 
money to Conde, and thus setting the King of France 
against her as well as the King of Spain. She was, 
indeed, in a month, so completely turned by Lord 
Burghley's influence as to exert herself to bring about 
some sort of accord between Henry III. and the 
Huguenots. 3 

1 In Strype's " Annals," in extcnso. 

2 Hatfield Papers. Another letter of this period (June 1580) from Sussex 
to Lord Burghley (Hatfield Papers) shows forcibly the affection and veneration 
he felt for him. "I do love, honour, and reverence you as a father, and do 
you all the service we can as far as any child you have, with heart and 
hand. . . . The true fear of God which your actions have always shown 
to be in your heart, the great and deep care you have had for the honour 
and safety of the Queen . . . and the continual trouble you have of long 
time taken for the benefit of the commonwealth, and the upright course you 
have always taken respecting the matter, and not the person, in all causes 
. . . have tied me to your Lordship in that knot which no worldly frailty 
can break." 

3 See her letter to Henry III. (Hatfield State Papers, 27th July 1580). 



344 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

During the rest of the year the haggling between 
Elizabeth and Alencon went on. The deputies of the 
States, after much discussion, offered the sovereignty to 
the French Prince, whose letters to the Queen grew 
more preposterous than ever. It was evident that if 
he went too far in the Protestant direction to please 
Elizabeth he would be useless as a means for attracting 
the Catholic Flemings to cordial union with Orange ; 
whereas an uncompromising Catholic attitude, or any 
appearance of depending upon his brother for armed 
aid, would have been fiercely resisted both by the 
English and the Hollanders. Many points therefore 
had to be reconciled, and the Queen kept the affair 
mainly in her own hands, playing upon the hopes, 
fears, and ambitions of Alencon with the dexterity of 
a juggler. 

Burghley's main efforts in the meanwhile were 
directed to preventing her from drifting into war, either 
with France or Spain. When the envoys came from 
the Portuguese pretender, Don Antonio, they brought 
bribes and presents in plenty for Leicester, who enter- 
tained them splendidly, and urged their suit for assist- 
ance for their master ; but again Lord Burghley pointed 
out to the Queen the expense she would incur and 
the risks she would run in a war with Spain, and one 
Ambassador after another went back discomfited, whilst 
Leicester pocketed their bribes, and alternately raged 
and sulked when his advice was not followed. 

There were others besides Leicester whose reckless- 
ness or greed was dragging England to the brink of a 
war with Spain, in spite of Burghley's efforts. Strong 
as was the great statesman's interest in increasing the 
legitimate trade of the country, we have seen that from 
the beginning of Hawkins' voyages to the West Coast 
of Africa, and thence to South America with slaves, 



1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 345 

Burghley had refused any participation in the syndi- 
cates that financed them. He had, it is true, on more 
than one occasion repudiated the claim of the Spaniards, 
and especially of the Portuguese, to exclusive dominion 
of the western world by virtue of the Pope's bull, but he 
had always frowned upon the filibustering attempts of 
the syndicates, under the auspices of some of the alder- 
men of London, to establish posts in territory occupied 
by other Christian powers, or to force trade upon estab- 
lished settlements against the will of the authorities. He 
had honestly done his best to check robbery in the 
Channel by those who called themselves privateers, 
and almost alone of the Councillors, he had no share 
or interest in the piratical ventures under the English 
flag which had committed such destructive depredations 
upon shipping. 

The attack upon Hawkins' fleet at San Juan de Ulloa, 
1568, had aroused fierce and not unnatural indignation 
amongst sailors and merchants in England ; but the 
expedition was in defiance of the Spanish law, in a port 
belonging to and occupied by Spain, and it is more 
than doubtful whether Burghley advised the seizure of 
the specie belonging to Philip, in December 1568, in 
reprisal for the attack. There were ample reasons, and 
an excellent legal pretext, for the seizure of the money 
without that. In fact it was a master-stroke of policy 
which the foolish rashness of De Spes had put into 
Burghley's power, and the latter and Elizabeth naturally 
welcomed the opportunity of crippling Alba. But when 
it became a question of revenging San Juan de Ulloa by 
the despatch of a strong armed expedition against Spanish 
colonies, Lord Burghley looked askance at what might 
well be made a casus belli by Spain, and could only 
enrich the mariners and shareholders who took part 
in it. 



346 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

Drake's raid upon Nombre-de-Dios, 1573, had been 
robbery pure and simple, carried out swiftly and secretly, 
so that the authorities at home had no opportunity, even 
if they had the will, to prevent it ; and Drake kept out 
of the way for nearly three years afterwards, to escape 
punishment. But in 1577 he was introduced by Wal- 
singham or Hatton to the Queen, 1 who told him that she 
wished to be revenged upon the King of Spain, and that 
he, Drake, was the man to do it. When Drake ex- 
plained his plan for a great piratical raid into the Pacific, 
the Queen swore by her crown that she would have any 
man's head who informed the King of Spain of it ; and, 
says Drake, "her Majesty gave me special commandment 
that of all men my Lord Treasurer should not know it." 
But the preparations for the voyage could not be kept 
secret entirely from Burghley, who was well served by 
spies, and had many means of winning men. He could 
not prohibit the expedition, of course ; but, as usual, he 
sought to render it as innocuous as possible. Thomas 
Doughty, presumably a barrister, certainly a man of 
questionable character, had become Hatton's secretary, 
and was deep with Drake in the plans for the expedi- 
tion. The whole business is somewhat obscure, but 
Lord Burghley appears to have bought this man to his 
interests, and, according to Doughty himself, to have 
offered him the post of his private secretary, which, 
however, is unlikely. In any case, he learned from him 
all that there was to know about Drake's intentions, and 
when, in November 1577, Drake's expedition sailed, 
Doughty accompanied it as Burghley's secret agent, and, 

1 According to Drake's statement given in Cooke's narrative in Vaux, 
Drake was presented to the Queen by Walsingham ; but Doughty, of whom 
we shall speak presently, asserted when he was on his trial that he, who was 
a great friend of Drake, and private secretary to Hatton, had interested the 
latter in the project, and that it was he who persuaded the Queen to counte- 
nance Drake. 



1580] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 347 

it may charitably be surmised, for the express purpose of 
moderating if not frustrating its action. First he tried to 
desert with his ship, and was duly chased and brought 
back by Drake. Then he was accused of attempting to 
sow discord, discouragement, and mutiny amongst the 
men, and Drake hanged him with his own hands on the 
coast of Patagonia. 1 Winter, the other captain, drifted 
back to England again from Tierra del Fuego, whilst 
Drake in the little Pelican went on his great voyage of 
plunder round the world. All Europe rang with the news 
of his ravages in the South Seas, and the shareholders, 
says Mendoza, "are beside themselves with joy." But the 
feelings of peaceful English merchants, and of Burghley 
himself, were far different. They saw that Spain had 
been attacked wantonly, her mariners hanged, her trea- 
sure stolen without legal excuse, her sacred edifices 
ransacked, and it was felt that a war of retaliation was 
inevitable, in which all England would suffer for the 
dishonest profit of a few. 

One day towards the end of September 1580, after 
an absence of nearly three years, when most people had 
given up Drake for lost, the Pelican sailed quietly into 
Plymouth Sound, bringing in her hold plundered riches 
incalculable. Drake posted up to London, hoping doubt- 
less that Elizabeth's greed would overcome her fears of 
war. He was closeted for six hours with the Queen; but 
when he was summoned to the Council not one of his own 
backers was there, but only Burghley, Sussex, Crofts — 
a Spanish agent — and Secretary Wilson. They ordered 
all his treasure to be brought to the Tower, and a pre- 
cise inventory made of it, preliminary to its restitution. 
When the order was taken to Leicester, Walsingham, 
and Hatton, they refused to sign, and exerted their influ- 

1 20th June 1578. Doughty confessed that he had given Burghley a plan 
of the voyage. It was this, unquestionably, that sealed Doughty's fate. 



348 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1580 

ence with the Queen to get it suspended. Mendoza 
raged and threatened. The Queen was in mortal fear 
of war, and had promised that Drake should be punished 
if he came back. But she loved money, and was not 
blind to the injury that had been done to her probable 
foe by Drake's boldness. So she temporised as usual, 
accepted Drake's presents graciously, and gradually 
came round to making a hero of the great seaman, in 
spite of Mendoza's talk of war and vengeance. She 
must have proofs against Drake before she punished 
him, she said. Besides, what were the Spanish troops 
doing in Ireland ? When the last Spanish-Papal soldier 
was withdrawn, she would talk about the restitution of 
Drake's plunder — not before. 1 At present she was the 
aggrieved party. Gifts and bribes showered from Drake 
upon the Councillors ; but when Burghley was offered 
3000 crowns' worth of fine gold, he refused it, saying 
he could not receive a present from a man who had 
stolen all he had, 2 and Sussex also declined any portion 
of the booty. Once more it was Burgh ley's task to 
avert or provide against the war with Spain, which the 
ineptitude and cupidity of others had brought within 
measurable distance. 

1 Mendoza writes to the King (23rd October 1580) : "Sussex, Burghley, 
Crofts, the Admiral, and others insist that the Queen should retain the trea- 
sure in her own hands in the Tower, and if your Majesty will give them the 
satisfaction they desire about Ireland, the treasure may be restored, after 
reimbursing the adventurers for their outlay. . . . Leicester and Hatton 
advocate that Drake should not be personally punished, nor made to restore 
the plunder if the business is carried before the tribunals. The fine excuse 
they give is that there is nothing in the treaties between the countries which 
prohibits Englishmen from going to the Indies." 

2 Spanish State Papers. 



CHAPTER XIII 

1581-1584 

Alencon had nominally accepted the sovereignty of 
Flanders offered to him by the States of Ghent in the 
autumn of 1580 ; but whilst the Huguenots were in 
arms against his brother, he had no force of men to 
enable him to enter and assume the government of his 
new dominion. He had industriously striven to draw 
Elizabeth into a marriage, or into aiding him in Flanders 
as a price for her jilting him ; but she had always been 
too clever for him, and kept on the right side of a posi- 
tive compromise. When the fears of war with Spain 
engendered in England by Drake's depredations became 
acute, and the Spanish aid to the Irish rebels could no 
longer be concealed, it was necessary once more for 
England to draw close to France. A request was 
accordingly sent for a special French embassy to come 
to England empowered to settle the details of the 
Alengon marriage and a national alliance. Elizabeth's 
letters to Alencon became more affectionate than ever : 
she promised him 200,000 crowns of Drake's plunder 
to pay German mercenaries to support him in Flanders, 
she sent the lovelorn Prince a wedding-ring, she petted 
and bribed his agent until her own courtiers were all 
jealous ; and under the influence of Burghley and 
Sussex, once more the marriage negotiations assumed 
a serious aspect, whilst Leicester and Hatton chafed in 
the background. 

The activity of the seminary priests and missionaries, 

349 



350 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

in conjunction with the Papal invasion of Ireland, had 
been answered in England by fresh severity against 
the Catholics. The gaols were all full to overflowing 
with English recusants ; fresh proclamations were issued 
against harbouring priests ; and spies at home and abroad 
were following the ubiquitous movements of the zealous 
young members of the Society of Jesus, who yearned 
for the crown of martyrdom. There is no doubt that 
to some extent the new persecution of the Catho- 
lics was for the purpose of reconciling the Puritans to 
the Alengon match, but it was still more owing to 
the genuine alarm of a war against Spain and the 
Pope. 

Parliament opened on the 16th January 1581, after 
twenty-four prorogations, this only being its third session, 
although it was elected in 1572. We have already seen 
that the Puritan party was strong in the House of Com- 
mons, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Walter 
Mildmay, in his speech, voiced the general feeling of the 
country at the dangers that seemed impending. " Our 
enemies sleep not/' he said, " and it behoveth us not to 
be careless, as though all were past ; but rather to think 
that there is but a piece of the storm over, and that 
the greater part of the tempest remaineth behind, and 
is like to fall upon us by the malice of the Pope, the 
most capital enemy of the Queen and this State." * He 
denounced the " absolutions, dispensations, reconcilia- 
tions, and such other things of Rome. You see how 
lately he (the Pope) hath sent hither a sort of hypocrites, 
naming themselves Jesuits, a rabble of vagrant friars, 
newly sprung up, running through the world to trouble 
the Church of God." The aim of the oration, of 
course, was to lead the House to vote liberal supplies 
for the defence of the country, and in this it was 

1 D* Ewes' Journal, 



i 5 8i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 351 

successful ; though, when the Puritan majority endea- 
voured to appoint days of fasting and humiliation by 
Parliamentary vote, they were rapped over the knuckles 
by the Queen, as they had been in the previous session, 
for interfering with her prerogative. 1 

The country, in fact, was now thoroughly alive to 
the danger into which it had drifted, and Lord Burghley's 
hand once more took the tiller, to remedy, so far as he 
might, the evils which had resulted from the temporary 
abandonment of his cautious policy. 2 His task was 
not an easy one to settle the preliminaries of the 
pompous embassy which was to come from France. 
There were a host of questions to be considered. The 
Queen would insist upon the Ambassadors being of the 
highest rank, and having full powers. Leicester and 
Hatton objected to their coming at all ; Alencpn in- 
sisted that they should be only empowered to nego- 
tiate a marriage, and not an alliance ; whilst Cobham, 
the English Ambassador, endeavoured ineffectually to 
draw Henry III. into a pledge to break with Spain about 

1 Sir Walter Mildmay introduced a bill in this Parliament by which re- 
conciliation to Rome should be punishable as high treason, the saying of 
mass by a fine of 200 marks and a year's imprisonment, and the hearing of 
mass half that penalty. Absence from church was to be punished by a fine 
of £10 a month, and unlicensed schoolmasters were to be imprisoned for a 
year. The bill met with much opposition by the Lords and by Burghley's 
party, and was somewhat lessened in severity before it became law. 

" How entirely Elizabeth herself depended upon the Burghley policy now, 
is proved by a remark reported by Mendoza (27th February). D'Aubigny 
was quite paramount in Scotland, and Morton was in prison, his doom prac- 
tically sealed. Mendoza reports that the Earl of Huntingdon, Leicester's 
brother-in-law, Warden of the Marches, had connived at a raid of Borderers 
into England as far as Carlisle, where some Englishmen were killed, in order 
that he might have an excuse for crossing into Scotland and attacking Morton's 
enemies. When the Queen heard of this she was extremely angry. " What 
is this I hear about Scotland ? " she asked Walsingham. " Did I order any- 
thing of this sort to be done?" Walsingham minimised the affair. The 
answer was, "You Puritan ! you will never be content until you drive me 
into war on all sides, and bring the King of Spain on to me." (Spanish State 
Papers, Elizabeth.) 



352 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

Portugal before the embassy left France. At last all 
was arranged, and in April the Ambassadors, with a suite 
of two hundred persons, arrived in London. 1 Drake's 
silver was drawn upon liberally for presents ; a new 
gallery was built at Whitehall for the entertainment of 
the envoys ; Philip Sidney wrote a masque, and played 
the fool for once for their delectation ; and joust and tour- 
ney, ball and banquet, succeeded each other hourly, to 
the exclusion of more serious business. 

Leicester had done his best to stop the embassy, but 
without effect, and wrote to Lord Shrewsbury that he 
" was greatly troubled at these great lords coming." 2 
He tried to work upon the Queen's weak side, by assur- 
ing her that the one object of the Frenchmen was to 
lead her into heavy expenditure, and so to enfeeble her, 
that she might the more easily be conquered. 3 This, at 
all events, caused some restriction in the expenditure ; 
for the Queen suddenly discovered that it would not 
be dignified for her to entertain the Ambassadors or 
pay for horses until they actually arrived in London. 
Burghley may be presumed to have been delighted at 
their coming, for he made no effort to limit the cost 
of his banquet to them at Cecil House, in the Strand, 
which was one of the most splendid entertainments 
offered to them. There is in the Lansdowne MSS. a 
full relation of this splendid feast of the 30th April, with 
the bills of fare, accounts of expenses, &c., which gives 
some notion of the splendour and extent of Burghley's 

1 It consisted of two very young princes of the blood sent for appearance' 
sake, Francis de Bourbon, Dauphin d'Auvergne, and Charles de Bourbon, 
Count de Soissons ; Marshal de Cosse, Pinart, La Mothe Fenelon, Brisson, 
and a great number of courtiers of rank. So desirous was Elizabeth that they 
should be impressed with the splendour of her court, that she ordered that 
the London mercers should sell their fine stuffs at a reduction of 25 per cent. 
in order that the courtiers might be handsomely dressed. 

2 Lodge, vol. ii. 

3 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 



1 58 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 353 

household. There were consumed two stags, 40s. ; two 
bucks, 20s.; six kids, 24s.; six pigs, 10s. ; six shins of beef, 
24s.; four gammons of bacon, 16s. ; one swan, 10s. ; 
three cranes, 20s. ; twenty-four curlews, 24s. ; fifteen 
pheasants, 30s. ; fifty-four herons, £8, 15s. ; eight part- 
ridges, 8s., and vast quantities of meat of all sorts ; and 
sturgeon, conger, salmon, trout, lampreys, lobsters, 
prawns, gurnards, oysters, and many sorts of fresh-water 
fish. Herbs and salads cost no less than 36s., and cream, 
27s. There were consumed 3300 eggs, 360 lbs. of 
butter, 42lbs. of spices, and three gallons of rose-water. 
.£11, 7s. 3d. was paid for the hire of extra vessels and 
glass ; flowers and rushes cost ^5, 7s. iod., and Turkey 
carpets, .£11. This Gargantuan feast was served by 
forty-nine gentlemen and thirty-four servants, and was 
washed down with .£75 worth of beer as well as Gascon, 
sack, hippocras, and other wine costing -£21 ; the entire 
expenditure on the afternoon's feeding being £649, is. 5d. 

Though Burghley and Sussex had brought over the 
embassy in hopes of a marriage, or at least an alliance, 
the Queen changed from hour to hour. When Leicester 
complained to her, she silenced him by saying that she 
could avoid a marriage whenever she liked by bringing 
Alengon over whilst the embassy was in England, and 
then setting the Frenchmen at loggerheads, and by sub- 
sidising the Prince's attempts in Flanders. At the same 
time she certainly led Sussex, and probably Burghley, to 
believe that she might be in earnest at last. 

After some weeks the elder Ambassadors got tired of 
trifling, and begged the Queen to appoint a committee of 
the Council to negotiate with them. The great banquet 
at Burghley House was the preliminary meeting, and a 
paper at Hatfield, endorsed by Burghley, lays down, in 
the usual precise manner of the time, every aspect of the 
matter. The propositions are three : 1st, if the Queen 

z 



354 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

should remain unmarried ; 2nd, if she should marry 
Alencon ; and 3rd, if she should enter into some strait 
league with the French. In the first eventuality the Queen 
must strengthen herself and weaken her opponents ; Scot- 
land must be reduced to the same friendship that existed 
before the advent of D'Aubigny ; James's marriage to a 
Catholic must be prevented ; Mary Stuart must be held 
tightly ; Ireland must be subdued ; the entire domination 
of Spain over the Netherlands must be avoided, and 
an alliance concluded either with France or the German 
Protestants. In the second eventuality, that the Queen 
should marry Alencon, the writer urges that the wedding 
should take place without delay, but always on condi- 
tion that religion in England must be safeguarded, and 
Henry III. pledged to provide most of the means for 
Alencon's enterprise in Flanders. On the other hand, 
if the marriage is not to take place, care must be taken 
that no offence is given to the suitor. " Since the treaty 
with Simier many accidents have happened to make this 
marriage hateful to the people, as the invasion of Ireland 
by the Pope, the determination of the Pope to stir up 
rebellion in this realm by sending in a number of Eng- 
lish Jesuits, who have by books, challenges, and secret 
instructions and seductions, procured a great defection 
of many people to relinquish their obedience to her 
Majesty. Likewise there is a manifest practice in Scot- 
land, by D'Aubigny, to alienate the young King of 
Scotland, both from favouring the Protestant religion 
and from amity to her Majesty and her realm, notwith- 
standing that he hath only been conserved in his crown 
at her Majesty's charges." 1 

Although this paper has usually been treated as ema- 
nating from Burghley, I consider it much more likely 
to have been the work of Walsingham. There is at 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 



1581] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 355 

Hatfield, of similar date (2nd May 1581), a note, all in the 
Lord Treasurer's hand, for his speech to the Ambassadors, 
and this is preceded by a private remark that, before a 
definite answer can be given, " it is necessary to know 
her Majesty's own mind, to what end she will have this 
treaty tend, either to a marriage or no marriage, amity 
or no amity." As Burghley seems not to have possessed 
this information, it is not surprising that the draft of his 
speech simply tends to delay. The Queen has written 
to Alen^on, he says, and must have a reply before she 
can say anything definite about the marriage ; but as 
there has been some talk on both sides of a close 
alliance, the Queen expects the Ambassadors to be em- 
powered to deal with that also. 1 

The Ambassadors themselves give an account of a 
speech of Burghley's, either on this or another occasion, 
in which he declared that, although he was formerly 
against the marriage, he now personally thought it desir- 
able. Brisson replied in a similar strain, and then the 
strong Protestantism of Walsingham asserted itself. He 
said that the hope of the marriage had caused the Pope 
to flood England with Jesuits and invade Ireland, the 
Catholics in England were already in high feather about 
it, and Alencon had broken faith, and had entered into 
negotiations with the States General, since Simier took 
the draft treaty. Besides, he said, look at the danger of 
child-bearing to the Queen at her age. The marriage 
would probably drag England into war at least, and 
until the Queen received a reply to her letters the nego- 
tiations for the marriage must stand over. 2 

It is quite evident that the Queen desired an alliance 
without a marriage, and to draw France into open 
hostility to Spain, whilst she remained unpledged. But 

1 Hatfield Papers, part ii. 
2 Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris : Fonds frau$ais, 3308. 



356 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

Secretary Pinart was almost as clever as Burghley, and 
played his cards well, and no progress was made. Let 
them marry first, said Pinart, it would be easy to make 
an alliance afterwards. Affairs were thus at a deadlock. 
Alengon was on the frontier with a body of men ready 
to enter Flanders to relieve Cambray, when his brother's 
forces dispersed them. It was then clear to the Prince 
that he must depend upon the Queen of England alone ; 
and ceding to the pressure of his agent in England, he 
suddenly rushed over to London (2nd June), to the 
confusion of the Ambassadors, who shut themselves up 
to avoid meeting him. The Queen was all smiles, for 
she was satisfied now that Alengon was obliged to look 
to her only for aid, marriage or no marriage. Alengon 
went back after a few days as secretly as he had come, 
but every one saw that the Queen had won the trick ; 
and the pompous embassy went back loaded with 
presents, but only taking with it a draft marriage treaty, 
accompanied by a letter from Elizabeth, saying that she 
might alter her mind if she liked, in which case the treaty 
was to be considered as annulled. 1 

In the meanwhile Mendoza was watching closely the 
attempts of Leicester to persuade the Queen to aid Don 
Antonio in Portugal, as well as to provide means for 
Alencon in Flanders. Walsingham had laid a trap for 
Mendoza, who was induced to pay a large sum of money 
to some Hollanders who promised to betray Flushing 
to the Spaniards, but really did just the opposite. The 
Hollanders left with the Spanish Ambassador the child 
son of one of them as a hostage. By orders of Walsing- 

1 In addition to the letter of the Queen, there is another document signed 
by the Ambassadors and by the English Council, saying that the terms shall 
not be considered binding upon the Queen, unless within six weeks she and 
Alencon report in writing to the King of France that they have arranged 
certain personal questions to their mutual satisfaction. Both documents are 
printed in extcnso in Digges. 



i$8i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 357 

ham the embassy was violated and the boy taken away ; 
and this amongst many other grievances was the source 
of endless squabbling with the Queen, who invariably 
retorted to all Mendoza's complaints that Philip had 
connived at the invasion of Ireland. After one of his 
interviews with the Queen (24th June) he writes : " It 
is impossible for me to express the insincerity with 
which she and her ministers proceed. . . . She con- 
tradicts me every moment in my version of the nego- 
tiations. ... I understood from her and Cecil, who 
is one of the few ministers who show any signs of 
straightforwardness, that they understood that your 
Majesty intended to write to the Queen assuring her 
that the succour had not been sent to Ireland on 
your behalf. I told them that the matter referred to 
the Pope alone, but Cecil said they wished to see 
a letter from your Majesty;" whereupon Mendoza 
angrily told him that the word of an Ambassador was 
sufficient. 

On the same day that this conversation took place, 
Burghley's task of keeping the peace was rendered still 
more difficult by the arrival in England of the fugitive 
Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio, who was at once 
taken up by Leicester and Hatton. The Spanish Am- 
bassador was told by Hatton that if he wanted his 
passports he could have them, and the Queen almost 
insultingly refused him audience. Mendoza then wrote 
her a letter, which he thought the Queen would be 
obliged to show to the whole Council, " where I was 
sure some of the members would point out to her the 
danger she was running in refusing to receive me and 
thus irritating your Majesty. Cecil, particularly, who is 
the person upon whom the Queen depends in matters 
of importance, had seen me a few days before, and said 
how sorry he was that these things should occur, and 



358 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

that he should be unable to remedy them, as he was 
sure I could not avoid being offended." x 

A few weeks afterwards Mendoza made another 
attempt to see the Queen, who was then in the country. 
She said that as Philip had not written any excuse 
about the Spanish expedition to Ireland, she did not 
see her way to receive the Ambassador. If he had 
anything to say he might tell it to two Councillors, 
Burghley was known to be the most favourable of them, 
and had expressed to Mendoza his ignorance that the 
audience had been refused. " He did not think it wise 
to refuse me ; and as he is the most important of the 
ministers I thought best to inform him of the reply I 
had received, and to say I should like to see him." 
Burghley was ill of gout at Theobalds at the time, but 
shortly afterwards he came to town and asked Mendoza 
to see him at Leicester House, " his gout preventing 
him from coming further." Mendoza found him with 
Leicester together, and in reply to the stereotyped 
complaints of the Ambassador about Drake's plunder, 
the aid to the Portuguese, and the refusal of audience, 
the Treasurer firmly told him that the Queen thought 
he had been remiss in not obtaining a letter from the 
King disclaiming the Irish expedition. This Mendoza 
haughtily refused to do, and the conference ended un- 
satisfactorily. 2 

It is evident that at this period (August 1581) Burghley 
was in despair of keeping on friendly relations with 
Spain. The Queen and Leicester had determined to 
subsidise Alencon in Flanders, and to countenance Don 
Antonio's attempts on Portugal. This coming after the 

1 Spanish Calendar, Elizabeth. 

2 The real reason for the Queen's ostentatious slighting of Mendoza at 
the time was to draw the King of France on, and make him believe that she 
was willing to break with Spain. 



i58i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 359 

retention of Drake's plunder, and refusal of audience 
to the Ambassador, seemed to make the continuance 
of peace between the two countries impossible, and 
Burghley was once more obliged to turn to the neces- 
sary, but to him distasteful, alternative — a close union 
with France. 

The great French embassy had gone back defeated, 
for they saw that Elizabeth was befooling Alengon, and 
that the national alliance would only be made on terms 
advantageous to English interests in Flanders. But it 
was necessary for Henry III. and his mother to cling 
to England if they were effectually to oppose Philip in 
Portugal. The Guises were becoming more overbearing 
and powerful than ever under the popular Duke Henry ; 
they were known to be turning towards Spain, and their 
ambitions were high both for themselves and for their 
cousin Mary Stuart. To avoid the complete subjugation 
of France to their ends, the King was therefore obliged 
to 1 court Elizabeth, and suffer her to have her way with 
Alengon and Flanders. Henry III. consequently asked 
Elizabeth, through Somers, to name a day for the 
marriage, simultaneously with which an offensive and 
defensive alliance would be concluded, and a secret 
agreement entered into with regard to the establishment 
of Alencon in Flanders. This, of course, was understood 
to be merely fencing, and Walsingham himself was sent 
to France to conclude a treaty. He was instructed to 
say that the French were mistaken in supposing that the 
marriage was settled. The Queen could not consent to 
the marriage now, for, as Alengon was already in arms 
against the King of Spain, it would " bring us and our 
realme into war, which in no respect our realme and 
subjects can accept." But if the King will accept her 
secret aid to Alenc^n's plan in Flanders, and the opposi- 
tion to Spain in Portugal, she will be willing to conclude 



360 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

an offensive and defensive alliance with him. In any 
case, the marriage was to be abandoned. Walsingham 
saw Alen^on in Picardy before going to Paris, and, as 
may be supposed, the young Prince was in despair at 
the Queen's fickleness. He was certain his brother would 
not make an alliance without the marriage, as he feared 
the Queen would slip out of it, leaving France alone face 
to face with Spain. 1 If, said Catharine, who was with 
her son, the Queen of England broke her word about 
the marriage for fear of her people, she might break an 
alliance for a similar reason. But Walsingham made it 
clear to both of them that Elizabeth would not allow 
herself to be dragged into war with Spain, though covert 
aid should be given to her late suitor. Poor Alengon 
wept and stormed, but in vain. Anything short of mar- 
riage was useless to him, he said. His brother neither 
had helped nor would help him against Spain, unless the 
marriage took place. He himself would come to Eng- 
land for an answer from the Queen's lips as soon as he 
had raised the siege of Cambray. Elizabeth complained 
of Walsingham's management of the interview ; he could 
rarely content her. He had, she said, been too abrupt in 
breaking off the marriage. Burghley pointed out to her 
that she could not have all her own way. She wanted, 
he said, to keep the marriage afoot, and yet not to marry; 
to aid Alengon secretly, whilst France aided him openly ; 
to conclude an alliance by which she gained everything, 
and France nothing. 2 

Elizabeth, in a rage, swore that Leicester and the 
Puritans were dragging her into all sorts of expense and 
trouble, 3 from which she could not extricate herself with- 

1 Walsingham to the Queen : "fearing lest when he should be embarqued 
your Majesty would slip the collar" (Walsingham Papers). See also Wal- 
singham's letters to Burghley, in the same. 

2 Burghley to Walsingham ; in extenso in Digges. 
8 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1 5 8 1] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 361 

out war. Walsingham was soon disgusted with his task, 
for he could make but little progress in Paris, and the 
Queen found fault with him constantly. He answered 
boldly, almost rudely, to all her strictures. He told her 
that with all this hesitation about the marriage " you lose 
the benefit of time, which, if years be considered, is not 
the least thing to be weighed. If you mean it (the mar- 
riage) not, then assure yourself it is one of the worst 
remedies you can use. . . . When your Majesty doth see 
in what doubtful terms you stand with foreign princes, 
then you do wish with great affection that opportunities 
offered had not been overslipped ; but when they are 
offered you, if they be accompanied by charges, they 
are altogether neglected. The respect of charges hath 
lost Scotland, and I would to God I had no cause to 
think it might not put your Highness into peril of losing 
England." 1 

Even Burghley, with all his influence, was in despair 
at getting the Queen to spend any money. Walsingham 
had told the Queen that if she lent Aleneon 100,000 ducats 
secretly he might be appeased. Burghley pointed out 
to her that her niggardliness was ruining the chance 
of effectually weakening Spain. " In no wise," writes 
Burghley, "would she have the enterprise of the Low 
Countries lost, but she will not particularly warrant you to 
offer aid. She allegeth that now the King (of France) hath 
gone so far he will not abandon it. . . . Her Majesty is 
also very cold in the cause of Don Antonio, alleging that 
she liketh it only by opportunity [importunity ?] of her 
Council ; and now that all things are ready, ships, victuals, 
and men, the charges whereof come to .£12,000, she hath 
been moved to find .£2000 more needful for the full fur- 
niture of the voyage, wherewith she is greatly offended 
with Mr. Hawkins and Drake, as the charges are greater 

1 Hatfield State Papers, part ii. 



362 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

than was said to her . . . hereupon her Majesty is con- 
tent not to give a penny more ; and now after Drake 
and Hawkins have made shift for the ^2000, she will 
not let them depart until she be assured by you that 
the French will aid Don Antonio, for she feareth to be 
left alone. ... All these things do marvellously stay her 
Majesty . . . yet she loseth all the charges spent in vain, 
and the poor King (Antonio) is utterly lost." * 

But Burghley might reason and remonstrate, Wal- 
singham might tell her, as he did, that the penuriousness 
would bring her to ruin, Elizabeth would not open 
her purse strings until it was almost too late. Alencon 
had made a dash into Flanders soon after seeing Wal- 
singham in August, and relieved Cambray, and then 
being absolutely penniless, his brother, in a fright at 
his boldness, refusing any aid, the Queen was obliged 
to send him .£20,000 to prevent the abandonment of 
the whole business, and a union with the Guises which 
he threatened. He returned to France after a few 
weeks, and then again announced his intention of 
coming to England to exert his personal influence on 
the Queen. To stave off the visit several other sums 
of money were sent to him. Leicester, too, strove his 
hardest to stop it ; but Alencon's agents and Alencon's 
lovelorn epistles were more flattering to the Queen even 
than Leicester, and the lover came early in November. 

Although Walsingham had almost arranged a draft 
treaty of alliance without marriage when he was in 
Paris, it fell through on the eternal question of the 
Queen's "charges" and responsibility, and when Alencon 
arrived in England the whole matter was as far from 
settlement as ever. Of the extraordinary cajolery by 
which the Queen alternately raised Alencon to the 
pinnacle of hope and plunged him to the depths of 

1 Burghley to Walsingham ; in exienso in Digges. 



i 5 8i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 363 

despair during his stay with her at Richmond and 
Whitehall, a full description will be found elsewhere. 1 
By her dexterity she bound him personally to her, and 
made it appear that the only obstacles to the match 
were those raised by the King of France. From the 
coming of Alencon it is clear that Leicester alone under- 
stood the Queen's game. The earl was radiant and 
joyous, which made Sussex distrust the result, notwith- 
standing appearances. So far as he could Lord Burghley 
held aloof, although when the Prince came to London 
he waited upon him with other Councillors formally 
every morning at nine. When the famous scene was 
enacted (22nd November) in the gallery at Whitehall, 
where the Queen boldly kissed her suitor on the lips 
and publicly pledged herself to marry him, 2 Burghley 
was confined to his bed with an attack of gout. The 
Queen sent him an account of what had passed. Men- 
doza reports that he thereupon exclaimed, " Blessed be 
the Lord that this business has at last reached a point 
where the Queen, on her part, has done all she can ; 
it is for the country now alone to carry it out." The 
deduction which Mendoza drew from this exclamation 
was probably the correct one. To him it proved that 
the whole plan was insincere on the part of Elizabeth, 
and that the intention was to cause conditions to be 
imposed by Parliament which the King of France could 
not accept, and then to throw the responsibility of the 
breach upon the latter. 

This was all very well, but it was a reverse for 
Burghley's policy. Leicester and Walsingham had drawn 
the Queen into a position of almost open hostility to 
Spain ; and yet a close union with France was rendered 

1 " Courtships of Queen Elizabeth," by the present writer. 

2 See Camden ; Memoires de Nevers ; Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth ; 
and "Courtships of Queen Elizabeth." 



364 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

difficult by Elizabeth's fickleness and dread of responsi- 
bility, and by Leicester's jealousy. As usual in such 
circumstances, Burghley cautiously endeavoured to re- 
dress the balance. When the treaty with France seemed 
assured, Mendoza had been refused audience, and on 
remonstrating with Burghley he had found him far 
less willing to be friendly than before. Leicester quite 
openly talked about turning the Spanish Ambassador 
out of England, and even Burghley had replied, to 
an application for audience on behalf of Mendoza to 
deliver a letter from Philip to the Queen, who was at 
Nonsuch, that the Queen was alone and unattended by 
Councillors, " and as Don Bernardino is to bring letters 
to the Queen from so great an enemy to her as his 
master, it is meet that he should be received as the 
minister of such a one." When the Spaniard did see the 
Queen (October), his threats and complaints about Don 
Antonio and Alencon were met with anger and indigna- 
tion by her. All the old complaints on both sides were 
repeated, and both then and later Mendoza was certain 
by the attitude of Leicester, Hatton, and Walsingham, 
that they were determined to have war with Spain, and 
that Burghley, for once, would not stand in their way. 
But a change came in the attitude of the latter in 
December. It seemed then impossible for the Queen to 
withdraw her pledges to Alengon without a breach with 
France, whilst she could hardly help him without a war 
with Spain. Scottish affairs, moreover, were a subject of 
deep anxiety. D'Aubigny was now master, and Morton, 
to Elizabeth's indignation, had been executed. Catholic 
priests and Jesuits were known to be flitting backwards and 
forwards ; and worst of all, Mary Stuart had, for the first 
time since her flight, opened up friendly negotiations 
with her son's Government, and had formally joined 
James with herself in her sovereignty. She had more- 



1581J THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 365 

over written confidently asking for many fresh conces- 
sions which Elizabeth was loath to grant her. 1 

Any appearance of an approach of the French and 
Scots always drew England and Spain together, and with 
the added dangers already cited, this was quite sufficient 
to change Lord Burghley's tone. Mendoza accordingly 
reports (25th December 1581) that, at a meeting of the 
Council held to consider the situation, Burghley sug- 
gested that an alliance should be made with Spain, and an 
agreement arrived at with regard to the Low Countries. 
This was approved of by the Lord Chancellor (Bromley), 
the Lord Admiral (Lincoln), and Crofts. Sussex held 
aloof, wavering between his enmity to France and 
Leicester, and his attachment to Protestantism ; whilst 
Leicester, Walsingham, Hatton, and Knollys were strenu- 
ously opposed to any approach to Spain, as they were, 
even more violently, to Burghley's proposal that Drake's 
plunder, or what was left of it, should be restored. A 
few days afterwards Burghley had some business with a 
Spanish merchant established in London, and to him he 
expressed a desire that negotiations should be opened for 
an agreement between the two countries. When the 
merchant carried the message to Mendoza, the latter 
attributed the suggestion entirely to the fear which he 
had aroused by his firmness, and he made no response. 
Mendoza himself, indeed, one of the warlike Alba 
school, had now no hope or desire for peace. The rise 
of D'Aubigny in Scotland and the coming of the Jesuits 
had quite altered the position during the last year, and 
Mendoza had in his hands a plot that seemed to promise 
the triumph of the Catholics. . 

As early as April 1581, Mary Stuart had renewed her 
approaches to Spain through the Archbishop of Glasgow 

1 Wilkes, Clerk of the Council, was sent to confer with Mary upon the 
subject. His report in full is in State Papers, Scotland, and at Hatfield. 



366 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

in Paris. " Things were now/' she said, " better disposed 
than ever in Scotland for a return to its former condition 
. . . and English affairs could be dealt with subsequently. 
The King, her son, was quite determined to return to the 
Catholic religion, and much inclined to an open rupture 
with the Queen of England." She begged for armed 
aid from Philip, to be landed first in Ireland, and to enter 
Scotland at a given signal after the alliance between 
Scotland and Spain had been signed. Nothing came of 
this at the time ; and after several other attempts on the 
part of Mary to get into touch with the Spaniards, she 
became distrustful of her Ambassador (Archbishop Beton) 
and other intermediaries, and contrived in November to 
communicate with Mendoza direct. She had heard that 
all the priests who flocked into Scotland and England 
looked to him for guidance, and that through them he 
had sent a message to the Scottish Catholics, saying that 
everything now depended upon Scotland's reverting to 
the old faith. The English Catholic nobles then at 
liberty had, at Mendoza's instance, formed a society with 
this object, and secretly sent two priests to sound 
James and D'Aubigny, and to promise that they would 
raise the north of England, release Mary, and secure 
the English succession to James. They brought back 
a favourable reply, which the ambassador at once con- 
veyed to Allen and Persons on the continent. This was 
late in the autumn of 1581, and Mendoza looked coldly 
upon Burghley's new advances, for he was now the centre 
of the plot to overthrow Elizabeth by means of the Scottish 
Catholics, a plot in which, against his will, he was obliged 
to make use of the Jesuit missionaries, who themselves at 
first had no idea of the Spanish political aims that under- 
lay the conversion of Scotland to Catholicism. 

Side by side with the Jesuits, Creighton, Persons, and 
Holt, who were employed in the political movement, 



i 5 8i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 367 

were others who had been sent to England and were 
intended purely for spiritual work. They had been 
extremely successful in their propaganda, and had once 
more infused spirit into the English Catholic party. This 
could not be done without the printing and dissemina- 
tion of books, as well as preaching, and the spies of the 
Council were directed to track to earth the priests who 
were at the bottom of the movement. Nearly every 
writer upon the subject has taken for granted that Lord 
Burghley was at the bottom of the persecution which 
followed. Such, however, does not appear to have been 
the case. As we have seen, the Lord Treasurer insisted 
upon some uniformity in the practice of the Anglican 
Church, but he must have known that many of his 
closest friends, and the colleagues upon whom he 
depended in the Council, were Catholics, and his life- 
long tendency was to a political union with Spain, the 
champion of Catholic Christendom. He was determined, 
it is true, to crush treason to the Queen and the insti- 
tutions of the country, no matter who suffered ; and 
when Catholicism meant revolution he harried it fiercely; 
but he was no persecutor for the sake of religion itself, 1 
and the cruel torture and execution of Campion, Sherwin, 
and Briant, 2 during Alencon's visit to England (1st De- 
cember 1581), for denying the Queen's supremacy, were 
almost certainly prompted in the main by Walsingham, 
Knollys, and the Puritans, who were in a fever of 
apprehension lest the marriage with Alengon would 
lead to toleration of the Catholic faith. The men 
actually executed were not in fact employed in the 
political portion of the propaganda at all, but were 
honest religious missionaries ; but they, and the scores 

1 See his own book, " Treatise on the Execution of Justice," written in 1583 
in answer to Allen's attacks. 

2 See Simpson's Life of Campion, Spanish State Papers, Camden's 
Elizabeth, and Allen's Be Pasecutione Anglicana. 



368 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

of other Catholics who were swept into prison at the 
time, were useful object lessons for Walsingham and 
Leicester, whose aims, as we have seen, were in direct 
opposition to those of Burghley. 1 The latter, indeed, 
was at the very time of the execution approaching Men- 
doza with suggestions for an alliance with Spain, which 
were coldly received for the reasons already explained. 

During Alencon's stay in England, the Queen, who 
was playing her own game, which was to reduce the 
Prince to utter dependence upon her and to distrust of 
his brother, had been constantly thwarted by the jealousy 
of Leicester and Hatton. They were for granting enor- 
mous sums to the suitor to get rid of him at any cost, 
which was no part of the Queen's plan. Lord Burghley 
alone of the Councillors never displeased her in the 
matter ; whenever it was a question of large expenditure, 
he always had a convenient attack of gout, and thus 
never openly thwarted the Queen. The difficulty was 
to get Alencon out of the country without ruinous ex- 
pense or further pledges, and when it was found that 
all the Queen's persuasions were unavailing she had to 
employ Burghley's diplomacy. He began by inflaming 
the young Prince's ambition, and enlarging upon the 
splendid destiny awaiting him in his new sovereignty, 
which was now clamouring for his presence. Promises 
were made never meant to be literally fulfilled, of the 
vast sums the Queen would contribute to his support, 

1 Burghley, writing to Lord Shrewsbury (Lansdowne MSS., 982) in August 
1 581, telling him of the trial and execution for treason of the priest Everard 
Duckett, who had denied the Queen's authority, says in reference to Campion 
and his companions, " If they shall do the like, the law is like to correct them. 
For their actions are not matters of religion, but merely of state, tending 
directly to the deprivation of her Majesty's crown." Campion, he says, had 
been brought before Leicester and Bromley, but had not confessed anything of 
importance. It appears to have been the result of the admissions wrung from 
Campion and others about this time as to the houses in which they had lodged 
that led to the great number of Catholic arrests all over England. 



i 5 8i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 369 

and at last, after infinite trouble, he was induced to 
promise to sail for Flanders. He wished to stay until 
the new year ; but when Burghley pointed out to him 
the large amount of money he would have to spend in 
presents he seemed to give way, for money he had none. 
But when the time came he still stayed on. The Queen 
told Burghley after supper on Christmas night that she 
would not marry the lad to be empress of the world, 
and that he must get rid of him somehow. Catharine 
de Medici, the Prince of Orange, the German princes, 
and the French Ambassador all added their pressure 
to that of the Queen and Burghley to get Alencon out of 
England. Leicester and Hatton fumed and threatened. 
Burghley at last frankly told the Queen that the only way 
to get rid of her suitor was to provide a sum of ready 
money for him, and promise that he should come back 
to England as soon as he was crowned. The Queen did 
not like the alternative, and said she must wait for the 
King of France's answer to her last demands. This time 
Catharine de Medici beat her with her own weapons. 
The answer was a full acceptance of everything required 
by the English ; and to make it more complete, Alencon 
said he was willing to become a Protestant. 

This was indeed alarming, and the Queen sent 
hurriedly to Burghley to get her out of the scrape. His 
suggestion this time was that she should demand Calais 
and Havre as security for the fulfilment of the King's 
promises, which was a device after her own heart. But 
still Alencon would not go, and the Queen became 
seriously alarmed. She promised him .£60,000 ; but 
Burghley was opposed to any such sum as that being 
paid, or indeed more than was necessary for the Prince's 
voyage. The Queen said that she did not mean to pay 
it, but only to promise it, which was quite another 
matter. It is evident that Burghley was now quite 

2 A 



370 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1581 

undeceived, and against both the pretence of marriage and 
any large support being given to Alencon. He dreaded 
the revenge of France for the insult put upon it ; and 
of Spain, for aiding the Frenchman's usurpation of 
Philip's sovereignty under English protection. His 
remedy, as usual, was a friendship with Spain. Wal- 
singham, on the other hand, was all in favour of vigorous 
help to Orange and a war with Spain. The Queen 
usually leant to the side of Burghley, but was swayed 
hither and thither by her fears of France, by Pinart's 
threats, Alencon's tears, Leicester's jealousy, and her 
own greed and vanity. 

At last after infinite trouble Alencon sailed with fifteen 
ships, attended by Leicester (sorely against his will), 
Hunsdon, Sidney, Willoughby, Howard, and Norris, 
to take upon himself the sovereignty of Holland and 
Flanders. The Queen after all had to provide a large 
sum of money, but it was sent to the States, and not 
entrusted to Alencon, except a personal present of 
.£25,000 from the Queen. Leicester escaped from the 
new sovereign's side on the very day he was crowned, 
and hurried back to his mistress's side. He reported 
that Alencon and the French were hated by the Pro- 
testant Dutchmen, who had only admitted him because 
the Queen of England was behind him. The English 
Ambassador in Paris at the same time sent word that 
Henry III. had repudiated his brother's action, and 
had denounced as traitors all those who aided him. 

This was exactly what Elizabeth feared. She had 
offended both the great powers, and was alone. She 
swore at Leicester for sanctioning, by his presence, the 
investiture of Alencon ; she railed at Walsingham as a 
knave for dragging her into such a business ; and she 
insisted upon Burghley, who was ill with fever in Lon- 
don, getting up and coming to Windsor to tell her what 



1582] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 371 

to do. When he appeared, she asked him whether it 
would not be better for her at once to become friendly 
with Spain. Thus, though the sagacious Lord Treasurer 
had let her go her own way, she had at last been brought 
by circumstances to propose his policy again. " He 
replied that nothing would suit her better, especially 
if peace could be arranged in the Netherlands by the 
concession of liberty of conscience." 1 Sussex was of 
the same opinion, but distrusted both the Queen and 
Burghley, who, he said, had spoken coolly on the sub- 
ject on the Council. There is, however, no reason to 
doubt that the Treasurer was sincere in his desire for 
such an arrangement, which indeed was the only one 
which seemed to promise peace to England. 

In the meanwhile the Spanish and Jesuit plot in 
Scotland was progressing. Guise had drifted further 
and further away from Henry III. and his mother, from 
whom he saw he could get no aid for Mary Stuart or 
his own ambitious plans. When, therefore, the Queen 
of Scots had offered her submission and the sending 
of her son to Spain, he had separated himself from 
French interests, and tendered his own humble services 
to Philip. This made all the difference. If the Holy 
League and this undertaking made the Guises Catholics 
and Spaniards before they were Frenchmen, Philip 
need have no hesitation in helping their niece to the 
crowns of Scotland and England ; and the Jesuits were 
set to work to secure James and D'Aubigny, whilst Mary 
Stuart's spirits rose high. The Scottish Catholic nobles 
were ready to rise, and even, if necessary, to kill or 
deport the King if he would not be a Catholic. All 
they asked was a force of two thousand foreign troops. 
D'Aubigny entered eagerly into the affair, and by the 
spring of 1582 all was arranged, when the Jesuit emis- 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



372 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1582 

saries and D'Aubigny between them mismanaged it. 
Guise was foolishly brought into the plan by D'Aubigny, 
and he wanted to invade the south of England with his 
troops at the same time. D'Aubigny made exaggerated 
claims for himself, and the Scottish Catholic nobles 
followed suit. Philip recognised that Guise was still 
playing for his own hand, though not for France. If 
Mary was to be Queen of Great Britain and his humble 
servant, she must owe her crown to him, and not to Guise. 
Philip therefore grew cool, and the raid of Ruthven and 
the banishment of D'Aubigny, by which young James fell 
into the hands of the Protestants (August 1582), effectu- 
ally put an end to the projects of invasion for a time. 

On the 18th March 1582, Aleneon in Antwerp was 
giving an entertainment on the occasion of his birthday, 
when the Prince of Orange was stabbed, it was thought 
mortally, by a young Spaniard hired by those greater 
than himself. The one cry, both in Holland and in 
England, was, that Aleneon and his false Frenchmen 
were at the bottom of the crime, and, but for the forti- 
tude of Orange, every Frenchman in the Netherlands 
would have been massacred. Elizabeth was beside her- 
self with fear. Her first impulse was to get Aleneon out 
of Flanders, even if she brought him to England ; but 
Walsingham gravely warned her that if the Prince came 
again she would certainly have to marry him. 

Whilst Orange lay between life and death, Leicester, 
Hatton, Knollys, and Walsingham were for ever urging 
the Queen boldly to take Flanders and Holland under 
her own protection, whilst Burghley, aided by Sussex and 
Crofts, again advocated an arrangement with Spain. But 
the latter were in a minority ; the Protestant feeling of the 
country was thoroughly aroused at the attempted murder 
of Orange, and Burghley was obliged to be cautious. 
Mendoza was instructed by Philip, March 1582, to use 






1582] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 373 

his influence with the Council to prevent aid being given 
to Alencon. " I have/' writes Mendoza, " tried every 
artifice to get on good terms with some of them, but 
they all turn their faces against me, particularly the Lord 
Treasurer, whom I formerly used to see, the rest of them 
being openly inimical. Only lately I sought an oppor- 
tunity of approaching him again, and asked him to see 
me. He replied that his colleagues looked upon him 
as being very Spanish in his sympathies, and therefore 
he could not venture to see me alone, except by the 
Queen's orders. I had, he said, better communicate my 
business through Secretary Walsingham, in the ordinary 
course." 1 

Walsingham, on the other hand, lost no opportunity 
of widening the breach, in order to force the Queen to 
more vigorous action in favour of the Dutch Protestants. 
In May he sent an insulting message to Mendoza, to the 
effect that the Queen would not receive him until some 
satisfaction was given about Ireland. The Ambassador 
at once complained to Burghley. War, he said, might 
well result from this treatment of him. Burghley endea- 
voured to minimise the slight. It was a mistake of the 
messenger, he said, and Mendoza had better write to the 
Queen. He did so, but with no result but to confirm 
Walsingham's message, though Elizabeth softened it 
somewhat by saying, " God forbid that she should ever 
break with your Majesty, to whom she bore nothing 
but good-will." 2 When, in July, Alencon demanded 
more money, Walsingham, Leicester, and Hatton were 
for sending him ^50,000 at once — anything to prevent 
his coming to England again — but Cecil opposed it 
vigorously. There was but .£80,000 in the Treasury, he 
said, and so only -£30,000 was sent to Flanders. 

By the death of Bacon, the fatal illness of Sussex, and 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. * Ibid. 



374 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1582 

the defection of Hatton, Lord Burghley was at this time 
almost alone in the Council ; for Crofts, the Controller, 
a regular pensioner of Spain and a Catholic, was a man 
of no influence ; and, according to Mendoza, the Lord 
Treasurer in November told the Queen plainly that she 
must appoint two more Councillors of his way of think- 
ing, " to oppose Leicester and his gang." It was pro- 
bably in pursuance of this policy that Burghley cast 
about for some counterbalancing influence to be used 
against Leicester. 

At the end of 1581 a young captain named Walter 
Ralegh, whose company in Ireland had been disbanded 
on the suppression of the Desmond rebellion, had been 
sent over to England with despatches. He was clever 
and brilliant, and full of schemes for governing Ireland 
more cheaply than the Viceroy, Lord Grey, had done. 
Grey rebuked him for his presumption, and sent him 
home in semi-disgrace. Leicester was a bitter enemy of 
Grey's, and was glad to welcome the young captain who 
impeached his government, and that of Leicester's rival 
Ormond. 1 Ralegh was invited to the Council-table to 
explain his plans to Lord Burghley. His recommenda- 
tions were approved, and submitted to the Queen, who 
gave him audience. Before many weeks passed (May 
1582), favours began to shower upon him ; and by the 
autumn, Leicester and Hatton had taken fright, and were 
bitterly jealous of him, whilst the Lord Treasurer had 
cleverly enlisted the new favourite under his banner. 
He was never a member of the Council, but he had the 
Queen's ear, and kept it for years ; for Leicester was 
elderly and scorbutic, and Hatton was an affected 

1 Ralegh was certainly known to Leicester before this. He was attached 
to his suite when he accompanied Alencon to Antwerp in February ; and 
always professed to be specially attached to him personally, even when he 
was lending his aid to his political opponents. 



1582] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 375 

fribble, whilst Ralegh was young, handsome, and manly, 
and as wise as he was ambitious. 

During the autumn of 1582 the plague raged in 
London, and Burghley took refuge at Theobalds, where, 
in November, his recently married young son-in-law, 
the eldest son of Lord Wentworth died. The letters 
written on this occasion from Walsingham 1 and Hatton 2 
prove that the political opposition in the Council did 
not degenerate into personal enmity ; indeed, nothing 
is more remarkable than the affectionate regard, and 
even reverence, which are constantly expressed by Lord 
Burghley's correspondents towards him. An especially 
kind thought seems to have occurred to Walsingham. 
He suggests to Hatton that "it would be some comfort 
to his lady {i.e. Elizabeth Wentworth), if it might please 
you so to work with her Majesty, as his (Burghley's) 
other son-in-law (Lord Oxford), who hath long dwelt 
in her Majesty's displeasure, might be restored to her 
Highness's good favour." 3 

The Earl of Oxford had constantly been a source of 
trouble to Lord Burghley. He was extravagant, eccen- 
tric, and quarrelsome, and only by the exercise of great 
forbearance on the part of his father-in-law had any 
semblance of friendship been kept up. If on this occa- 

1 B. M. Add. MSS., 15,891 : Walsingham to Hatton. 

2 B. M. LansdowneMSS., 36 : Hatton to Burghley. 

3 The probable cause of the Queen's displeasure with Oxford on this 
occasion was an affray between him and Sir Thomas Knyvett, one of the 
Queen's Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber, in March 1582. Nicholas Faunt 
writes to Anthony Bacon (Bacon Papers, vol. i.): "There has been a fray 
between my Lord of Oxford and Knyvett, who are both hurt, but Lord 
Oxford more dangerously. You know," he adds, " Master Knyvett is not 
meanly beloved at court, and therefore is not likely to speed ill, whatsoever 
the quarrel be." There is also a most interesting letter from Burghley to 
Hatton (12th March 1582, B. M. MSS., Add. 91), in which he begs him to 
intercede with the Queen for Oxford, and recites the whole of the accusations 
against him. 



376 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1582 

sion, as is probable, Hatton acceded to Walsingham's 
suggestion, and persuaded the Queen once more to re- 
ceive Oxford at court, it was not long before the intract- 
able Earl again misbehaved himself ; for on May of the 
following year (1583) his long-suffering father-in-law 
appealed to the new favourite, Ralegh, to exert his in- 
fluence with the Queen to forgive him again. Ralegh's 
answer, 1 giving a long account of his efforts to move the 
Queen, shows that Oxford had injured him also. " I am 
content," he writes, " for your sake to lay the serpent 
before the fire, as much as in me lieth, that having re- 
covered strength, myself may be most in danger of his 
poison and sting." 

As we have seen, Mary Stuart had never ceased, since 
the triumph of D'Aubigny, to negotiate through Men- 
doza for her release and restoration, and the subsequent 
invasion of England over the Scottish Border. The 
raid of Ruthven and the fall of D'Aubigny did not at 
first discourage her. She still believed that the expected 
arrival of foreign troops, and her son's secret favour of 
the Catholics, would enable the plot to be carried 
through, 2 and under this belief it was that she wrote her 
violent letter of denunciation and complaint to Elizabeth 
(8th November). 3 

Almost simultaneously with the receipt of this letter 
in London there arrived the Guisan, La Mothe Fenelon, 
on his way to Scotland, for the purpose of inquiring into 
the treatment of D'Aubigny by the Protestant lords, unit- 
ing Mary and her son on the throne, and, if possible, to 
mediate with Elizabeth in favour of the captive Queen ; 
whilst, at the same time, another envoy (De Maineville) 
was sent by sea with secret instructions to plan a fresh 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 

2 Mary to Beton, 18th November 1582 (Spanish State Papers). 

3 Harl. MSS., 5397- 



1582] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 377 

rising of the Catholic nobles in union with James. 
Castelnau, the regular Ambassador, might protest untruly 
to Elizabeth, as he did, that it was " une chose du tout 
contraire a la verite" de dire que le Sieur De Maineville 
eut une seconde et particuliere secrete instruction ; " but 
the embassy was quite terrifying enough to Elizabeth, 
coming after the plots that she knew had been hatching 
between the Spaniards, the Jesuits, and D'Aubigny. 
Walsingham hurried from his country house to court 
the moment he heard of La Mothe Fenelon's arrival, for 
all the official French plans for helping James and 
D'Aubigny had purposely been allowed to leak out. We 
know now that they were merely a trick of the Queen- 
mother's to frighten Elizabeth into helping poor Alencon 
in the Netherlands, the only really serious part of them 
being De Maineville's secret mission, which depended 
entirely upon Guise. 1 The Queen kept La Mothe dallying 
for weeks before she would give him a passport, whilst 
she tried to dazzle him anew with the talk of marrying 
Alencon and supporting him in Flanders. Before he left 
for Scotland, D'Aubigny had passed through London 
on his way to France, where he died shortly afterwards ; 
and when La Mothe proceeded on his mission it was 
already too late, if ever it was intended to be effectual. 

It is one of the standing reproaches to Lord Burghley's 
memory that he was the constant enemy of Mary. In 
former chapters I have shown that this was not the case. 
That he was inflexible in tracing and punishing treason 
against his mistress and her Government is obvious, for 
it was his first duty as a minister ; but how far he was 
from any personal enmity against the unfortunate Mary, 

1 Full particulars of De Maineville's and La Mothe Fe'ne'lon's missions 
in M. Ch6ruel's Marie Stuart et Catherine de Medicis, drawn from the 
correspondence of La Mothe Fenelon and the archives of the D'Esneval 
family. 



378 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1582 

may be seen in his many letters to Lord Shrewsbury at 
Hatfield and elsewhere. On the receipt of Mary's im- 
prudent letter to the Queen and the arrival of La Mothe 
in England, a Council was called to consider the removal 
of the Queen of Scots from the care of Shrewsbury. 
Mendoza says that " the Treasurer was greatly opposed 
to her being removed from the Earl's house, where she 
had remained for fifteen years, especially as Shrewsbury 
had not failed fully to carry out his instructions. He 
said her removal would scandalise the country." x 

Burghley's relative William Davison, in conjunction 
with Robert Bowes, was sent to Scotland at the same 
the time as La Mothe, to dissuade James from acceding to 
French suggestion of associating his mother with himself 
in his sovereignty ; and Walsingham's brother-in-law, 
Beale, was deputed to proceed to Sheffield for the pur- 
pose of negotiating with Mary with regard to her future. 2 
Mary from the first had seen that the interference of 
Henry III. and his mother was a feint in favour of 
Alen^on, and sent Fontenay to Mendoza whilst Beale 
was with her, to ask for his guidance in the negotiation. 3 
Elizabeth had secretly authorised Beale, under certain 
circumstances, to offer Mary her release. This, Mendoza 
understood, was unfavourable to Spanish ends, because 
she would almost infallibly fall in such case into the 
hands of the French, or be compelled, if she stayed in 
England, to make such renunciations and compromises 
as would render her useless as an instrument with which 
to raise the Catholics. The Spaniard therefore naturally 
advised her to stay where she was, and the unhappy 
woman followed his interested advice. She gave Beale 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 See Beale's instructions, Had. MSS., 4663 ; also Beale's report of his 
proceedings in Lord Calthorpe's MSS. 

3 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1583] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 379 

a somewhat unyielding answer, and her last chance of 
liberation fled. 1 

In the meanwhile Alencon continued to clamour for 
money, andrepeatedhis vows of everlasting love and slavish 
submission ; anything if Elizabeth would only send money 
to save him from becoming the laughing-stock of Europe. 
The Protestant Dutchmen were tired of him ; Orange 
saw that he was a useless burden, and prayed Elizabeth 
to take her bad bargain back again. Seeing that he could 
expect but little from England, he obtained the help of 
his mother. Marshal Biron crossed the frontier into 
Flanders, and in January 1583 the false Valois endea- 
voured to seize and garrison with Frenchmen the strong 
places of the Netherlands. The affair failed, and Alencon 
fled from Antwerp detested and distrusted. The States 
disowned him, and Norris, the English general, refused 
to obey him ; and though Elizabeth pretended to be 
angry with Sir John Norris and the Englishmen, she 
thought better of it when Alencon asked her to with- 
draw them and let his Frenchmen deal with the Flemings, 
for it was now clear that she could never trust him in 
Flanders alone. 

With the invidious position into which Elizabeth's tor- 
tuous policy had led her ; almost hopeless as she was now 
of conciliating Spain, and conscious of having insulted 
France beyond forgiveness by her treatment of Alencon ; 
with Orange discontented, and Scotland in a ferment, it 
is not strange that division existed in the Queen's 
counsels. Burghley himself at this time was tired of the 
struggle. The fresh Councillors had not been appointed, 

1 This is according to Beale's official report. But on the following day 
(17th April 1583) Beale wrote to Lord Burghley (Harl. MSS., 4663), saying 
that she had abandoned all ambition, she was old and ill, and was ready to 
swear to anything for her liberation. This, however, was before she received 
Mendoza's letter (6th May ?) advising her on no account to accept her release 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth). 



380 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1583 

and he had to contend with infinite diplomacy for every 
point that he carried. The general tendency of the 
Queen's policy was opposed to his view of what was 
wise ; he was now old and almost constantly ill, and 
either the Queen's obduracy with regard to his unworthy 
son-in-law Oxford, or the opposition he constantly met 
with, led him to seek release from his offices, and to 
desire to pass the rest of his life in retirement. His 
complaint would rather seem to have been against the 
Queen herself, to judge from her very curious letter 
turning his desire to ridicule. On the 8th May 1583 
she wrote : — 

"Sir Spirit, 1 I doubt I do nickname you, for those 
of your kind, they say, have no sense. But I have 
of late seen an ' Ecce Signum,' that if an ass kick you, 
you feel it so soon. I will recant you from being a 
spirit if ever I perceive you disdain not such a feeling. 
Serve God, fear the King, and be a good fellow to the 
rest. Let never care appear in you for such a rumour ; 
but let them well know that you rather desire the 
righting of such a wrong by making known their error, 
than you be so silly a soul as to foreslow that you 
ought to do, or not freely deliver what you think 
meetest, and pass of no man so much, as not to re- 
gard her trust who putteth it in you. God bless you, 
and long may you last omnino. E. R." 2 

The duplicity of the young King of Scots and the 
intrigues of the Guisan envoy were successful in June 
in withdrawing James from the power of the lords of 
the English faction, and once more the Scottish Catholics 

1 The Queen had nicknames for most of her friends ; Burghley was the 
Leviathan or the Spirit, Hatton was Bellwether or Lyddes, Walsingham 
was Moon, Alencon was Frog, Simier was Ape, Ralegh was Water, Leicester 
was Sweet Robin, and so forth. 

3 Printed in Dr. Nares' Life of Burghley. 



1583] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 381 

held up their heads. 1 Thus encouraged, Mary at once 
informed Elizabeth that the conditional promises she had 
made to Beale and Mildmay in the negotiations for her 
release, were to be considered void unless she were at 
once liberated, 2 her attitude being no doubt to some 
extent the result of the strenuous efforts of the Spaniards 
through Mendoza to keep her in England, and to prevent 
her from entering into any compromise as to religion. 

This new phase of affairs profoundly disquieted Eliza- 
beth. 8 Her Ambassador in France, Henry Cobham, con- 
tinued to send alarming news of Guise's designs, 4 and it 
is certain that Walsingham, at all events, was aware of the 
constant communications between Mary and Mendoza. 
It was therefore decided to send Walsingham himself to 
Edinburgh, to obtain from James some assurance that 
English interests should not suffer by his change of 
ministers, and to offer him a subsidy in consideration 
of his acceptance of the terms proposed by Elizabeth. 
That the mission was an unwelcome one to Walsingham, 
who foresaw its failure, is proved by Mendoza's state- 
ment (19th August) : " He strenuously refused to go, 
and went so far as to throw himself at the Queen's 

1 See letter from a Scottish gentleman to De Maineville, 13th July (Spanish 
State Papers, Elizabeth), and Mary to Mendoza, of same date {ibid.), 

2 See letter of Castelnau to Henry III., 1st July 1 in extenso in Ch^ruel's 
Marie Stuart. How completely Mary distrusted the French and Castelnau 
at the time, notwithstanding her cordial letters to them, may be seen by a 
paragraph in her letter to Mendoza of 13th July (Spanish State Papers). The 
recognition of James as King by La Mothe's embassy had confirmed Mary's 
determination to depend only upon the Spaniards. 

5 One of Elizabeth's movements as soon as she heard the news was to 
summon Lord Arbroath, the eldest of the Hamiltons, from France, to proceed 
to Scotland in her pay. See letter, Mary to Castelnau, September (Hatfield 
Papers), and Mendoza to the King, 19th August (Spanish State Papers). 

4 Guise sent Persons (alias Melino) to the Pope in August, giving him an 
account of his plans. Four thousand Spaniards were to land at Dalton-in- 
Furness, Lancashire, whilst Guise made a descent on Sussex, simultaneously 
with a rising of Catholics in the North of England and on the Scottish Border 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 22nd August). 



382 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1583 

feet, and pronounce the following terrible blasphemy : 
he swore by the soul, body, and blood of God, that 
he would not go to Scotland, even if she ordered him 
to be hanged for it, as he would rather be hanged in 
England than elsewhere. . . . Walsingham says that he 
saw that no good could come of the mission, and that 
the Queen would lay upon his shoulders the whole of 
the responsibility for the evils that would occur. He 
said she was very stingy already, and the Scots more 
greedy than ever, quite disillusioned now as to the 
promises made to them ; so that it was impossible that 
any good should be done." l But Walsingham went 
nevertheless, and came home safely, though, as he fore- 
told, his embassy was fruitless, for, the Catholics had 
entirely captured James. 

Alencon, in despair of obtaining sufficient help from 
Elizabeth, now that he had shown his falseness, had 
retired to France, leaving his forces under Marshal 
Biron. Lovelorn epistles and frantic protestations con- 
tinued to pass between him and Elizabeth; but it was 
acknowledged now that his cause was hopeless, and he 
fell henceforward entirely under the influence of his 
mother. The States and Orange again and again urged 
Elizabeth to take the provinces into her own hands 
and carry on the war openly. Leicester, Walsingham, 
Bedford, Knollys, and the Puritans urged her seriously 
to do so ; but she refused on the advice of Burghley, 

1 Walsingham's disinclination to undertake the mission is quite compre- 
hensible. He was at the time engaged in a complicated intrigue with the 
triple traitor Archibald Douglas, by which he learnt the secrets of Mary 
Stuart ; and at the same time he and Leicester were making approaches to 
Mary Stuart and James, for a marriage between the latter and Lady Dorothy 
Devereux, the step-daughter of Leicester, on condition of James being de- 
clared the heir of England. See letters from Mary to Castelnau, September 
1583 (Hatfield Papers, part iii.), and Mendoza to the King, 13th March 1583 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth) ; also Castelnau to Henry, 1st January 1584 
(Harl. MSS., 1582), and the same to Mary (Harl. MSS., 387). The heads of 
Walsingham's instructions are in Hatfield Papers, part iii. 



iy8 3 ] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 383 

"who told her that she had not sufficient strength to 
struggle with your Majesty, particularly with so small a 
contribution as that offered by the States. Leicester and 
the rest of them are trying to persuade her to send five 
or six thousand men thither." * 

Events were irresistibly nearing a crisis which made 
it necessary for Elizabeth to take an open course on one 
side or the other ; and Lord Burghley had again been 
overborne by the zealous Protestants in the Council 
until a breach with Spain had become unavoidable 
sooner or later. Walsingham had never lost touch of 
Mary Stuart's proceedings, 2 or of her French cousin's 
various plans for the murder of Elizabeth, and the in- 
vasion of England. Guise had submitted to Philip in 
1583 a regular proposal for the Queen's assassination, 
and in the autumn had sent his pensioner Charles 
Paget (Mopo) to England to negotiate for the rising 
of the English Catholics. One of the results of this 
was that young Francis Throgmorton, a correspondent 
of Mary Stuart, and one of her intermediaries with 
Mendoza, was arrested with others and charged with 

1 Mendoza to the King, 19th August (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth). 

2 Many of her compromising letters to Mendoza were intercepted and 
read. Mary herself, writing to Elizabeth from Tutbury (29th September 
1584), thanking her for her change of lodging, protests against the stoppage 
of her correspondence with the French Ambassador Castelnau. " All that 
I write," she says, " passes through the hands of your people, who see, read, 
examine, and keep back in order to point out to me any fault if they find in 
it anything offensive or injurious to you" (Harl. MSS., 4651). This was more 
true than Mary thought when she wrote it, for she had no idea that some 
of her more compromising letters to the Spaniards were read. A letter from 
Mary to Sir Francis Englefield, Philip's English Secretary (9th October 
1584), contains the following dangerous words: "Of the treaty between 
the Queen of England and me I may neither hope nor look for good issue. 
Whatsoever shall come of me, by whatsoever change of my state and con- 
dition, let the execution of the great plot go forward without any respect 
of peril or danger to me." And she continues by saying that the plan (i.e. 
the rising and invasion) must take place at latest next spring or the cause 
will be ruined. 



384 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

a plot to assassinate the Queen. How far this accusa- 
tion was true it is at this moment difficult to say, but 
there is no doubt that the Throgmortons, with the Earl 
of Northumberland, who was imprisoned, Lord Paget, 
who fled, and many other Catholics, were in league with 
Charles Paget for a rising, in conjunction with Guise. 

It is to be noted that Lord Burghley took no part 
in the prosecution of Throgmorton, which was mainly 
forwarded by Leicester, who was always suspected of 
having poisoned Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, the uncle 
of the accused man. The apprehension of the con- 
spirators and the consequent expulsion of Mendoza 
(January 1584) certainly served the purposes of the 
strong Protestant majority led by Leicester 1 and Wal- 
singham in the Council, and aided them in forcing the 
hands of the Queen and Burghley. The death of Alencon 
in June, and the murder of Orange by an agent of the 
Spaniards in July, still further acted in the same direc- 
tion. It was no longer possible for England to hold 
a non-committal position. Either Spain must be per- 
mitted to crush Protestantism in the Netherlands, or 
the head of the Protestant confederacy must cast aside 
the mask aifd boldly fight the Catholic powers. There 
were reasons why this course might now be taken with 
much more safety than previously. The Queen-mother 
of France was frantic with rage against Spain for the 
loss of her favourite son. The King was childless, and 
the Guises were already plotting to grasp the crown, 

1 There are several reasons for believing that the prosecution of Somerville, 
the Ardens, Throgmorton, and others, was not entirely honest on the part of 
Leicester. Somerville was obviously a madman, and was strangled in his 
cell ; the estates of Arden, whose wife was a Throgmorton, went to enrich a 
creature of Leicester ; and the priest, Hall, on whose evidence the prisoners 
were condemned, was quietly smuggled out of the country by Leicester's 
favour. Although it is possible that Throgmorton may have participated in 
Guise's murder plot — he certainly did in the invasion plot — there is no satis- 
factory evidence to prove it. 



1584] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 385 

or partition France on Henry's death, rather than he 
should be succeeded by the Huguenot Henry of Navarre. 
Elizabeth had therefore the certainty, for the first time 
since her accession, that France nationally would not 
coalesce with Spain against her, and that any attempt of 
Guise to injure her would be counteracted by Catharine, 
Navarre and the Huguenots. 

The question of the future policy to be pursued by 
England under the changed circumstances was, as usual, 
submitted to the judicial examination of Lord Burghley, 
whose minutes 1 set forth the whole case pro and contra. 
The question propounded was, " Shall the Queen defend 
and help the Low Countries to recover from the tyranny 
of Spain and the Inquisition ; and if not, what shall she 
do to protect England when he shall have subdued 
Holland ? " After stating the advantages and disadvan- 
tages of each course, it is evident that the judgment is 
in favour of aiding the States, on certain conditions of 
security, which Burghley himself notes in the margin. 
The aid is to cost as little as possible ; some of the best 
noblemen of Zeeland are to be held as hostages in the 
hands of the English ; the chief military commands to 
be held by English officers ; the King of* Scots to be 
secured to the English interest ; the King of Navarre to 
embarrass Spain on her frontiers, and a Parliament to 
be called in England for the purpose of sanctioning the 
course proposed. But, continues the document, if it is 
decided that England shall not help the States, then 
she must be put into a condition of defence, the navy 
increased, a large sum of money collected, some German 
mercenaries engaged to watch the Scottish Border, and 
the English Catholics " put in surety." " Finally, that 
ought to be Alpha and Omega, to cause her people to 
be better taught to serve God, and to see justice duly 

1 Hatfield State Papers, part iii. 

2 B 



386 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

administered, whereby they may serve God, and love 
her Majesty ; and that if it may be concluded, Si Deus 
nobiscum, quis contra nos ? " 

Lord Burghley was thus, after a quarter of a century 
of striving to keep on friendly relations with Spain, forced 
by the policy of Leicester, Walsingham, and the strong 
Protestants, into the contest which he had hoped to 
avoid. Circumstances had been stronger than indi- 
vidual predilections, and Mary Stuart's ceaseless designs 
against the crown and faith of England, and especially 
her submission to Spain, had given the Protestant party 
an impetus which swept aside the cautious moderation 
of Burghley's policy, and proved even to him the neces- 
sity for war. 






CHAPTER XIV 

1584-1587 

The militant Protestants were now paramount in Eliza- 
beth's Council, and soon made their influence felt, not 
only in foreign relations, but in home affairs as well. 
They were in favour of an aggressive policy in aid of 
Protestantism abroad, and doubtless thought that the 
best way to strengthen their hands would be to strike at 
Prelacy at home, and to discredit the last vestiges of the 
old faith, against the foreign champions of which they 
were ready to do national battle. 

The appointment of Whitgift to the Archbishopric of 
Canterbury had been avowedly made by the Queen 
(September 1583) for the purpose of repairing the effects 
of Grindal's leniency, and bringing the Nonconformists 
to obedience ; " to hold a strait rein, to press the disci- 
pline of his Church, and recover his province to unifor- 
mity." He had set about his work with a thoroughness 
which brought upon him a storm of reproach from 
ministers, and greatly embittered the controversies within 
the Church. 1 Burghley felt strongly on the question of 
uniformity, as involving obedience to the law ; but Whit- 

1 How keenly Whitgift felt the attacks upon him for doing what he con- 
ceived to be his duty, may be seen by his letters in Strype's Whitgift. In a 
letter to Anthony Bacon (Birch's Elizabeth) he writes: "I am, thank God, 
exercised with like calumnies at home also ; but I comfort myself that lies 
and false rumours cannot long prevail. In matters of religion I remain the 
same, and so intend to do by God's grace during life ; wherein I am daily 
more and more confirmed by the uncharitable and indirect practices, as well 
by the common adversary the Papist, as also of some of our wayward, un- 
quiet, and discontented brethren." 

387 



388 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

gift's methods were too severe even for him, and pro- 
duced from him more than one rebuke. He was the re- 
feree of all parties — Puritans, Churchmen, and Catholics 
appealed to him as their friend — and he strove to hold 
the balance fairly, whilst deprecating extreme views on 
each side. Leicester and Knollys were ceaseless in the 
attacks upon the prelates, and Whitgift's violence made 
it difficult for Burghley to defend him. In one of his 
letters to the Archbishop he says, " I am sorry to trouble 
your Grace, but I am more troubled myself, not only 
with many private petitions of ministers recommended 
by persons of credit as being peaceable persons in their 
ministry, but yet more with complaints to your Grace and 
colleagues, greatly troubled ; but also I am now daily 
charged by Councillors and public persons to neglect 
my duty in not staying your Grace's proceedings, so 
vehement and general against ministers and preachers, 
as the Papists are thereby encouraged, and ill-disposed 
subjects animated, and her Majesty's safety endangered." 
Now that the Puritan party had the upper hand, 
Burghley's proverbial middle course was not strong 
enough for his colleagues, and they determined to deal 
with Prelacy and Papacy at the same time. The first 
thing was to pack the new Parliament, and in this 
Leicester laboured unblushingly. Sir Simon D'Ewes' 
Journal sets forth the great number of blank proxies sent 
to the Earl ; and if his letter to the electors of Andover 
is typical, this is not to be wondered at. He boldly asks 
them to send him " your election in blank, and I will put 
in the names." Another letter from the Privy Council to 
Lord Cobham 1 directs him to obtain the nomination of 
all the members for the Cinque Ports. Parliament met 
at the end of November, and a formal complaint of the 
Puritan and Nonconformist ministers was presented to 

1 Hatfield State Papers, part iii. 






1584] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 389 

the House of Commons, which, after reducing the number 
of its articles from thirty-four to sixteen, it adopted and laid 
before the House of Lords. Whitgift and his colleagues 
fought hard, cautiously aided by Burghley and the Queen, 
who, when she afterwards dismissed Parliament, roundly 
scolded the members for interfering with her religious 
prerogative ; and the only effect of the complaints was to 
enable Burghley to exert pressure upon the prelates to 
allay their zeal. 

The attack of the militant Protestants against the 
Catholics, however, was more effectual, although even 
that was somewhat palliated by Lord Burghley's modera- 
tion. It was evident now that the Catholic League abroad 
and its instruments would stick at nothing. Father 
Creighton, the priest who had played so prominent a 
part in the abortive plans of D'Aubigny, Mendoza, and 
the Jesuits, had been captured with some of his brother 
seminarists, and the rack had torn from them confirma- 
tion of the desperate plans of which the Throgmorton 
conspiracy had given an inkling. Leicester and his party 
had aroused Protestant horror of such projects to fever 
heat. At his instance an association had been formed, 
pledged by oath to defend the Queen's life or to avenge 
it, and to exclude for ever from the throne any person 
who might benefit by the Queen's removal. Mary Stuart 
somewhat naturally regarded the last clause as directed 
against herself, and endeavoured to take the sting from it 
by offering her own qualified adhesion to the association, 
which, however, was declined. 

When the association was legalised by a bill in Par- 
liament, the Queen (Elizabeth), under Burghley's influ- 
ence, sent a message to the House, abating some of the 
objectionable features, and reconciling it with the rules 
of English equity. No penalties were to accrue before 
the persons accused had been found guilty by a regular 



39Q THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

commission, and Mary and her heirs were excused from 
forfeiture, unless Elizabeth were assassinated. 

The new bill against Catholics was easily passed, under 
feelings such as those prevailing in the House and the 
country, and the enactment was regarded as a natural 
retort to the promulgation of the Papal bulls in favour 
of revolution in England. All native Jesuits and semi- 
narists found in England after forty days were to be 
treated as traitors, and it was felony to shelter or harbour 
them. English students or priests abroad were to be 
forced to return within six months and take the oath of 
supremacy, or incur the penalty for high treason ; and 
many similar provisions were made, by which the world 
could see that the militant Protestants of England had 
picked up the gage thrown down by Philip and the 
Pope. Henceforward it was to be war to the knife 
until one side or the other was vanquished, and Lord 
Burghley's astute policy of balance and compromise was 
cast into the background after a quarter of a century of 
almost unbroken success. 1 

Almost the only dissenting voice in the House of 
Commons against the penal bill was that of Dr. William 
Parry, member for Queenborough. In a violent and 
abusive speech, he said that the House was so evidently 
biassed that it was useless to give it the special reasons 
he had for opposing the bill, but would state them to the 
Queen alone. This was considered insulting to the House, 
and he was committed to the charge of the sergeant-at- 
arms, but was released by the Queen and Council the 
following day. The events which followed form one of 
the unsolved riddles of history. Parry was a man of bad 

1 Even whilst the bill was passing through Parliament, however, the 
effects of his moderation were seen. In March twenty Catholic priests and 
one layman, either convicted or accused of treason, were released from prison 
and sent to France. Father Howard himself told Mendoza that he was at a 
loss to account for this leniency. 






1584] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 391 

character, who for years had been one of Burghley's 
many spies upon the English refugees on the Continent. 
He appears, however, to have been esteemed more highly 
by the Treasurer than such instruments usually are. 

When young Anthony Bacon was sent on his travels 
to France, his uncle, Burghley, specially instructed him 
to cultivate the acquaintance of Dr. Parry. Leicester 
complained to the Queen of this, and the Lord Treasurer 
undertook that his nephew should not be shaken either 
in loyalty or religion by his acquaintanceship with Parry. 1 
After the latter returned to England in 1583 he was 
elected member of the Parliament of the following year, 
after having persistently but unsuccessfully begged a sine- 
cure office from Burghley. From his first arrival he had 
been full of real or pretended plots for the assassination 
of the Queen, which he professed to have discovered on 
the Continent. He was, like all men of his profession, an 
unprincipled scamp, and made these secret disclosures 
the ground for ceaseless demands for reward. He was 
disappointed and discontented, as well as vain and boast- 
ful, and overshot the mark. In one of his interviews 
with the Queen he produced a somewhat doubtfully 
worded letter of approval from the Papal Secretary of 
State, Cardinal Como, 2 which, he said, referred to a pre- 
tended project undertaken by him (Parry) for the murder 
of the Queen. He talked loosely to Charles Neville and 
other Catholics of this plot as a real one, and six weeks 

1 He certainly was not benefited in purse ; for one of the first things 
Parry did was to borrow fifty crowns of the young man, which he never 
returned (Birch's Elizabeth). In the correspondence of Sir Thomas Copley 
with Burghley at this period (1579-80), Parry is presented in a more favour- 
able light than that in which he is usually regarded, and so far as can be 
judged by his letters he retained the Lord Treasurer's esteem almost to the 
time of his arrest. 

2 Mendoza, writing to Philip from Paris at the time, says that this letter 
was forged (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth), but in any case the letter did 
not necessarily imply approval of murder. 



392 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

after his escapade in Parliament was arrested and lodged 
in jail. At first he would admit nothing, but the fear of 
the rack, or some other motive, produced from him a 
full and complete confession of a regular plan — once, he 
said, nearly executed — for killing Elizabeth ; but before 
sentence he vehemently retracted, and appealed to the 
knowledge of the Queen, Burghley, and Walsingham 
that he was innocent. But if they possessed this know- 
ledge they never revealed it, and Parry died the revolting 
death of a traitor, clamouring to the last that Elizabeth 
herself was responsible for his sacrifice. 

It cannot be doubted that Parry was an agent provo- 
cateur, and great question arises as to the reality of the 
crime for which he was punished. I have found no 
trace in the Spanish correspondence of his having been 
a tool of Mendoza or Philip, such as exists in the cases 
of Throgmorton, Babington, and others ; and I consider 
that the evidence generally favours the idea that he was 
deliberately caught in his own lure, and sacrificed in 
order to aggravate the anti- Catholic fervour in the 
country, and secure the passage of the penal enact- 
ments. In one particular I dissent from nearly every 
historian who has written on the subject. All fingers 
point at Lord Burghley as the author of the plan. I 
look upon it as being the work of Leicester, Knollys, 
and Walsingham. It was they, and not Burghley, who 
were anxious to strengthen the fervent Protestant party. 
It was they, and not Burghley, who were forcing the 
penal enactments through the Parliament they had 
, packed. The Treasurer could hardly have been blind 
to what was going on, but he could not afford to cham- 
pion Parry. The latter, a venal scoundrel known to be 
in Burghley's pay, but discontented with his patron, was 
doubtless bought by Leicester to play his part in Par- 
liament, and afterwards to confess the Catholic plot on 



1584] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 393 

the assurance of pardon, with the object of blackening the 
Catholics, and perhaps, by implication, Burghley as well. 
That Leicester's friends were at the time seeking to 
represent the Lord Treasurer as against the Protestant 
cause is clear from several indignant letters written by 
Burghley himself. " If they cannot," he says, " prove all 
their] lies, let them make use of any one proof wherewith 
to prove me guilty of falsehood, injustice, bribery or 
dissimulation or double-dealing in Council, either with 
her Majesty or with her Councillors. Let them charge 
me on any point that I have not dealt as earnestly with 
the Queen to aid the afflicted in the Low Countries to 
withstand the increasing power of the King of Spain, 
the assurance of the King of Scots to be tied to her 
Majesty with reward, yea, with the greatest pension that 
any other hath. If in any of these I am proved to be 
behind or slower than any in a discreet manner, I will 
yield myself worthy of perpetual reproach as though I 
were guilty of all they use to bluster against me. They 
that say in rash and malicious mockery that England is 
become Regnum Cecilianum may use their own cankered 
humour." In July of the same year he writes in similar 
strain to Sir Thomas Edmunds : l "If you knew how 
earnest a course I hold with her Majesty, both privately 
and openly, for her to retain the King of Scots with 
friendship and liberality, yea, and to retain the Master 
of Gray and Justice-Clerk, with rewards to continue their 
offices, which indeed are well known to me to be very 
good, you would think there could be no more shameful 
lies made by Satan himself than these be ; and finding 
myself thus maliciously bitten with the tongues and pens 
of courtiers here, if God did not comfort me, I had cause 
to fear murdering hands or poisoning points ; but God 
is my keeper." 

1 Hatfield Papers, part iii. 



394 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1584 

The more or less hollow negotiations for the libera- 
tion of Mary, and for the association of her son with 
herself in her sovereign rights, had dragged on inter- 
mittently for years. Burghley himself has set forth the 
reasons for the successive failures ; l in each case the 
discovery of some fresh plot in her favour. The serious 
set of conspiracies brought to light in 1584 had caused 
her removal from the mild custody of Burghley's friend, 
Lord Shrewsbury, to that of the rigid Puritan, Sir Amyas 
Paulet, at Tutbury. In her troubles the captive Queen, 
like every one else, appealed to Burghley, and especi- 
ally in the matter of the reckless accusations of immo- 
rality brought by the Countess of Shrewsbury and her 
Cavendish sons against her husband and Mary. 2 

Burghley's kindness in this matter, and his attempts 
to soften the fresh severity of the Queen's captivity, had 
not only persuaded Mary's agents that he was her friend, 3 
but had given to Leicester and his party an excuse for 
spreading rumours to the Treasurer's detriment. At an 
inopportune time, Nau, Mary's French secretary, had 
gone to London with new plans of associated sove- 
reignty ; but almost simultaneously the Master of Gray 
had arrived as James's Ambassador. He was easily 
bought by the English Government, as we have seen, 
with the full approval of Burghley ; * and on his return 
to Scotland promptly caused the rejection by the Lords 
of Nau's project in favour of Mary. It was never on 
the question of securing the Scots by bribery to the 
English interest that Burghley was remiss. It was open 
war with Spain that he always opposed. 

In the meanwhile the toils were closing round the un- 

1 Had. MSS., 4651. a Hatfield Papers, part iii. 

3 See letter (Nau?) to Mary (Hatfield Papers, part iii. p. 125). 

4 See letter from Burghley's nephew Hoby, at Berwick, to the Treasurer 
(Hatfield Papers, part iii. p. 71). 






1585] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 395 

happy Mary. She had now thrown herself entirely into 
the arms of Spain ; and the Guises were being gradually 
but steadily forced into the background by Philip, as 
being likely to frustrate his plans, by claiming for their 
kinsman, James Stuart, the succession of England after 
his mother. Every letter to and from Tutbury was 
intercepted by Paulet. Morgan, Charles Paget, Robert 
Bruce, and others, in their communications with Mary, 
laid bare her hopes and their intrigues. 1 If any doubts 
had previously existed as to the intentions of Spain and 
the Queen of Scots, they could exist no longer. The 
only question for England was how best to withstand 
the combination against her. Here, as usual, Burghley 
was at issue with the now dominant party of militant 
Protestants ; and equally, as usual, his opposition was 
cautious and indirect. Leicester and his friends were 
for open operations against Spain both in the Nether- 
lands and on the high seas, and for helping Henry III. 
to withstand the Guises ; whilst the Treasurer preferred 
to stand on the defensive, and keep as much money in 
hand as possible. 2 Elizabeth rarely required urging to 
parsimony, and by appealing to her weakness Burghley 
was able for a time to moderate the plans of the other 
party. 

But events were too strong for him. Mainly by his 
influence Leicester had been restrained since 1580 from 
subsidising a great expedition against Philip in favour 
of the Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio ; but in the 
spring of 1585 the treacherous seizure of English ships 
in Spain had aroused the English to fury. Drake's 
great expedition of twenty-nine ships was fitted out, 
and general reprisals authorised. Never was an expedi- 

1 Hatfield State Papers, part iii. 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, part iii. p. 536 ; and Hatfield Papers, 
part iii. p. 99. 



396 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1585 

tion more popular than this, for the English sailors were 
aching for a fight with foes they knew they could beat, 
and Burghley's cautions were scouted. Drake's fleet 
sailed in September, doubtful to the last moment whether 
the Queen would not be prevailed upon to stay it ; * and 
by sacking Santo Domingo and ravaging Santiago and 
Cartagena almost without hindrance, demonstrated the 
ineffective clumsiness of Philip's methods. Leicester 
and the war-party were now almost unrestrained ; for 
the Lord Treasurer made the best of it, and confined 
his efforts to minimising the cost of the new policy as 
much as possible, and suggesting caution to the Queen. 

The Commissioners from the States continued to urge 
the Queen to assume the sovereignty of the Netherlands, 
and to govern the country, either directly or through a 
nominee ; but this was a responsibility which neither 
she nor Burghley cared to accept. At length, after 
much hesitation on the part of the Queen, Sir John 
Norris was sent with an English force of 5000 men to 
take possession of the strong cautionary places offered 
by the Hollanders, and Leicester was designated to 
follow as Lieutenant-General of the Queen's forces (Sep- 
tember 1585). 

Elizabeth approached the business with fear and 
trembling. It was a departure from Burghley's safe and 
tried policy, and was involving her in large expenditure. 
She distrusted rebels and popular governments ; she did 
not like to send away her best troops in a time of danger, 
and she railed often and loudly at Leicester and Walsing- 
ham for dragging her into such a pass. Only a day after 
Leicester's appointment she changed her mind and bade 
him suspend his preparations. " Her pleasure is," wrote 
Walsingham, "that you proceed no further until you 
speak with her. How this cometh about I know not. 

1 Carliell to Walsingham, 4th October 1585 (State Papers, Domestic). 



1585] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 397 

The matter is to be kept secret. These changes here 
may work some such changes in the Low Countries as 
may prove irreparable. God give her Majesty another 
mind, ... or it will work both hers and her best affected 
subjects' ruin." 1 To this Leicester wrote one letter of 
submission to be shown to the Queen, and the other for 
Walsingham's own eye, full of indignation. " This," he 
says, "is the strangest dealing in the world. . . . What 
must be thought of such an alteration ? I am weary of 
life and all." 

Elizabeth had, however, gone too far now to retire, 
and Leicester's journey went forward. But it is plain to 
see that whilst he was making his preparations to act as 
sovereign on his own account, the Queen, influenced by 
Burghley, was drafting his instructions in a way that 
strictly limited his power for harm, and minimised her 
responsibility towards Spain. Leicester was directed to 
" let the States understand that whereby their Commis- 
sioners made offer unto her Majesty, first of the sove- 
reignty of those countries, which for sundry respects she 
did not accept ; secondly, under her protection to be 
governed absolutely by such as her Majesty would appoint 
and send over as her Lieutenant. That her Majesty, 
although she would not take so much upon her as to 
command them in such absolute sort, yet unless they 
should show themselves forward to use the advice of her 
Majesty . . . she would think her favours unworthily 
bestowed upon them." 

This must have been gall and wormwood for Leices- 
ter, for in his own notes he lays down as his guiding 
principles, " First, that he have as much authoryte as the 
Prince of Orange had ; or any other Captain-General 
hath had heretofore: second, that there be as much 
allowance by the States for the said Governor as the 

1 Cotton, Galba, cviii. (Leycester Correspondence). 



398 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1585 

Prince had, with all offices apportenaunt." 1 He had 
infinite trouble in getting money from the Queen, and 
went so far as to offer to pledge his own lands to her as 
security ; but at last, in December, all was ready, and 
Leicester foolishly went to Holland with his vague ambi- 
tions, leaving Burghley in possession at home. It is 
plain from his beseeching letter of farewell to the Lord 
Treasurer that he recognised the danger. He prays him 
earnestly not to have any change made in the plans 
agreed upon, and to provide sufficient resources for the 
sake of the cause involved and for the Queen's honour. 
" Hir Majesty, I se, my lord, often tymes doth fall into 
myslyke of this cause, and sondry opinions yt may brede 
in hir withal, but I trust in the Lord, seeing hir Highness 
hath thus far resolved, and gone also to this far executyon 
as she hath, and that myne and other menne's poor lives 
are adventured for hir sake, that she will fortify and 
mainteyn her own action to the full performance that 
she hath agreed on." 2 Burghley was very ill at the 
time, unable to rise from his couch, but in answer to the 
Earl's appeal he assured him that he would consider 
himself " accursed in the sight of God" if he did not 
strive earnestly to promote the success of the expedition. 
The Lord Treasurer was, of course, sincere in his 
desire to prevent the collapse of the Protestant cause in 
the Netherlands, for he had never ceased for years to 
insist that the quietude of England mainly depended 
upon it. Where he differed from Leicester was in his 
determination, if possible, to avoid such action as 
would lead to an open breach with Spain. Before 
even Leicester landed at Flushing he had begun to 
quarrel with the Dutchmen, and in a fortnight was 
intriguing to obtain an offer of the sovereignty of the 

1 Had. MSS., 285 (Leycester Correspondence). 

2 Harl. MSS., 6993 (Leycester Correspondence). 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 399 

States for himself. The offer was made, and modestly 
refused at first ; but on further pressure Leicester ac- 
cepted the sovereignty, as he had intended to do from 
the first (January 1586). The rage of Elizabeth knew no 
bounds. This would make her infamous, she said, to all 
the world. Leicester was timid at the consequences of 
the step he had taken, and made matters worse by delay- 
ing for weeks to write explanations to the angry Queen. 
Walsingham and Hatton did their best, but very ineffec- 
tually, to appease her. Burghley in a letter to Leicester 
(7th February) assured him that he too had done so, and 
that he himself approved of his action, and hoped to 
"move her Majesty to alter her hard opinion." As we 
have seen, Burghley's opposition was seldom direct, and 
it may be accepted as probable that he mildly deprecated 
the Queen's anger against her favourite ; but a remark in 
a letter (17th February) from Davison, who was sent by 
Leicester to explain and extenuate his act to the Queen, 1 
seems to show that the Lord Treasurer's advocacy had 
not been so earnest as he would have had Leicester to 
believe. 

The Queen had ordered Heneage to go to Holland 
post-haste, to command Leicester openly to abandon his 
new title ; but from the 7th February till the 14th, whilst 
Heneage's harsh instructions were being drafted, Burgh- 
ley was diplomatically absent from court, and the pleading 
of Walsingham and Hatton had no softening effect upon 
the Queen. On the 13th February, Davison at length 

1 The unfortunate Davison, born apparently to be made a scapegoat, had 
to bear Leicester's reproaches for the Queen's anger, which the Earl said was 
owing to Davison's ineffective or insincere advocacy — Davison being a distant 
connection both of Burghley's and Leicester's. The latter even had the 
meanness to allege that it was mainly owing to Davison's persuasion that he 
accepted the sovereignty, and Davison was disgraced and banished from court 
for a time in consequence. See Sir Philip Sidney's letters to Davison (Harl. 
MSS., 285). 



4 oo THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

arrived with Leicester's excuses. The Queen railed and 
stormed until he was reduced to tears. She refused at 
first to receive Leicester's letter or to delay Heneage's 
departure. Burghley arrived the next day, and Davison 
writes on the 17th that he " had successfully exerted himself 
to convince the Lord Treasurer that the measures adopted 
were necessary, and that his Lordship had urged the 
Queen on the subject." 

The only effect of Burghley's persuasion, however, 
was to obtain for Heneage discretion to withhold, if he 
considered necessary, the Queen's letter to the States, 
and to save Leicester from the degradation of a public 
renunciation. Burghley had thus done his best to pre- 
serve Leicester's friendship and gratitude ; but, after all, 
it was his policy, and not that of Leicester, that was 
triumphant. Heneage was a friend of the Earl's, and on 
his arrival in Holland delayed action ; but the Queen 
was not to be appeased. She had, she said, been 
slighted, and her commission exceeded, and would send 
no money till her instructions were fulfilled. Confusion 
and danger naturally resulted, and Leicester's friends 
redoubled their efforts to save him. Burghley himself 
assured Leicester (31st March) that he had threatened to 
resign his office unless she changed her course. " I used 
boldly such language in this matter, as I found her 
doubtful whether to charge me with presumption, which 
partly she did, or with some astonishment of my round 
speech, which truly was no other than my conscience 
did move me, even in amaritudine anima. And then her 
Majesty began to be more calm than before, and, as I 
conceived, readier to qualify her displeasure." l 

When the Queen saw that Heneage and Leicester 
were construing her leniency into acquiescence of the 
Earl's action, she blazed out again ; and when Burghley 

1 Cotton, Galba, ex. (Leycester Correspondence), 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 401 

begged her to allow Heneage to return and explain the 
circumstances, " she grew so passionate in the matter 
that she forbade me to argue more ; " and herself wrote 
a letter to Heneage containing these words : " Do as 
you are bidden, and leave your considerations for your 
own affairs ; for in some things you had clear command- 
ment, which you did not do, and in others none, which 
you did." At the urgent prayer of the States, however, 
representing the danger to the cause which a public 
deposition of Leicester would bring about, the Queen 
finally allowed matters to rest until they could devise 
some harmless way out of the difficulty. 

Throughout the whole business Burghley almost 
ostentatiously acted the part of Leicester's friend. It 
was a safe course for him to take, for the Queen was 
so angry that he could keep the good-will of Leicester 
and the Protestants, and yet be certain of the ultimate 
failure of his opponent. As soon as the States under- 
stood Leicester's position, and had realised his incom- 
petence, they were only too anxious to be rid of him ; 
and throughout his inglorious government Burghley 
could well speak in his favour, for it must have been 
evident that the Earl was working his own ruin, and that 
his position was untenable. One curious feature in the 
matter is that both Burghley and Walsingham hinted to 
Leicester that the Queen was being influenced by some 
one underhand. " Surely," writes the Secretary, " there 
is some treachery amongst ourselves, for I cannot think 
she would do this out of her own head ; " and the gossip 
of the court pointed at Ralegh, who wrote to Leicester 1 
vigorously protesting against the calumny. 

There were, however, wheels within wheels in Eliza- 
beth's court. Two of her Councillors were Spanish spies, 
Ralegh was Burghley's partisan, the Conservative party 

1 Had. MSS., 6994 (Edwards' " Letters of Ralegh"). 

2 C 



4 02 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

in favour of friendship with the House of Burgundy was 
not dead, and, notwithstanding all that has been written, 
it may be fairly assumed that the decadence of Leicester 
and the militant Protestant party during the Earl's ab- 
sence in Holland did not take place without some secret 
prompting from Lord Burghley. 

In the meanwhile the plans for the invasion of Eng- 
land were gradually maturing in Philip's slow mind. 
The raid of Drake's fleet upon his colonies, and Leices- 
ter's assumption of the sovereignty of the Netherlands, 
had at last convinced Philip, after nearly thirty years of 
hesitancy, that England must be coerced into Catholi- 
cism, or Spain must descend from its high estate. So 
long as the elevation of Mary Stuart meant a Guisan 
domination of England, with shifty James as his mother's 
heir, it had not suited Philip to squander his much 
needed resources upon the overthrow of Elizabeth ; 
but by this time Guise was pledged to vast ambitions 
in France, which could only be realised by Philip's 
help. The Jesuits and English Catholics had persuaded 
the Spaniard that he would be welcomed in England, 
whilst a Scot or a Frenchman would be resisted to the 
death. Most of Mary's agents, too, had been bribed to 
the same side, and Mendoza in Paris was her prime 
adviser and mainstay. Various attempts were made by 
the Scottish Catholics and Guise's friends to manage 
the subjugation of England over the Scottish Border ; 
but though Philip affected to listen to their approaches, 
and used them as a diversion, his plan was already 
fixed — England must be won by Spaniards in Mary's 
name, and be held thenceforward in Spanish hands. 
Mary was ready to agree to anything, and at the prompt- 
ing of Philip's agents she disinherited her son (June 1586) 
in favour of the King of Spain. Morgan, Paget, and 
others had at last succeeded in reopening communica- 



1 586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 403 

tion with Mary, who had now lost all hope of release 
except by force. A close alliance between England 
and James VI. had been agreed to : she knew that no 
help would come from her son or his Government ; 
and her many letters to Charles Paget, to Mendoza, 
and to Philip himself, leave no doubt whatever that 
she was fully cognisant of the plans for the overthrow, 
and perhaps murder, of Elizabeth, in order that she, 
Mary, might be raised by Spanish pikes to the English 
throne. 1 

In May 1586 the priest Ballard had seen Mendoza 
in Paris, and had sought the countenance of Spain for 
the assassination of Elizabeth ; and in August the matter 
had so far progressed as to enable Gifford to give to 
Mendoza full particulars of the vile plan. There was, 
according to his account, hardly a Catholic or schis- 
matic gentleman in England who was not in favour 
of the plot ; and though Philip always distrusted a con- 
spiracy known to many, he promised armed help from 
Flanders if the Queen were killed. Mendoza, when he 
saw Gifford, recommended that Don Antonio, Burghley, 
Walsingham, Hunsdon, Knollys, and Beale should be 
killed ; but the King wrote on the margin of the letter, 
" It does not matter so much about Cecil, although he 
is a great heretic, but he is very old, and it was he who 

1 Amongst many other proofs may be mentioned her letter to Charles 
Paget, 27th July 1586 (Hatfield Papers, part iii.), in which she says : " Upon 
Ballard's return the principal Catholics who had despatched him oversea 
imparted to her their intentions;" but she advises that "nothing is to be 
stirred on this side until they have full assurance and promise from the Pope 
and Spain." In another letter of the same date to Mendoza she says that 
although she had turned a deaf ear for six months to the various overtures 
made to her by the Catholics, now that she had heard of the intentions of 
the King of Spain, she had consented thereto (Spanish State Papers, Eliza- 
beth, part iii.). Again, on the same day, she instructed the French Ambassador 
to ask Burghley to be careful in the choice of a new guardian for her, "so 
that whatever happen, whether it be the death of the Queen of England, 
or a rebellion in the country, my life may be safe" (Labanoff). 



4 o 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

advised the understandings with the Prince of Parma, 
and he has done no harm. It would be advisable to do 
as he [i.e. Mendoza] says with the others." l 

The folly of Babington and his friends almost passes 
belief. They seem to have been prodigal of their con- 
fidences, and to have had no apprehension of treachery. 
Babington's own letter to Mary setting forth in full all 
the plans in favour of " his dear sovereign " (6th July) 
was handed immediately by the false agent Gifford to 
Walsingham. No move was made by Walsingham, 
except to send the clever clerk Phillips to Chartley to 
decipher all intercepted letters on the spot, and so to 
avoid delay in their delivery, which might arouse the 
suspicion of the conspirators. Surrounded by spies 
and traitors, but in fancied security, the unhappy Queen 
involved herself daily deeper in the traps laid for her ; 
approved of Babington's wild plans, and made provision 
for her own release, whilst Walsingham watched and 
waited. When the proofs were incontestable, and all 
in the Secretary's hands, the blow fell. On the 4th 
August Ballard was arrested, Babington and the in- 
tended murderer Savage a day or so afterwards, and 
Mary Stuart's doom was sealed. She was hurried off 
temporarily to Tixhall ; Nau and Curll were placed 
under arrest, the Queen's papers seized, and her rooms 
closely examined. Amias Paulet was a faithful jailer, 
and he did his work well. " Amyas, my most faithful, 
careful servant," wrote Elizabeth, " God reward thee 
treblefold for the most troublesome charge so well 
discharged. If you knew, my Amyas, how kindly, be- 
sides most dutifully, my grateful heart accepts and 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, vol. iii. The reference to Parma applies 
to certain negotiations for peace which had been attempted by Andrea de Looe, 
Agostino Graffini, and William Bodenham. In a statement furnished by an 
English agent to Philip in November, it is also asserted that these negotia- 
tions were initiated by Burghley " who was always against the war." 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 405 

prizes your spotless endeavours and faultless actions, 
your wise orders and safe regard, performed in so dan- 
gerous and crafty a charge, it would ease your travail 
and rejoice your heart. . . . Let your wicked murderess 
know how with hearty sorrow her vile deserts compel 
these orders, and bid her from me ask God's forgive- 
ness for her treacherous dealing." Elizabeth and her 
ministers rightly appreciated the great peril which she 
had escaped, and from the first it was recognised by 
most of them that Mary had forfeited all claim to con- 
sideration at their hands. 1 

It is usually assumed by a certain class of writers 
that Mary was unjustly hounded to her death, mainly 
by the personal enmity of Lord Burghley. Nothing, in 
reality, is more distant from the truth. A most dangerous 
conspiracy against the government and religion of Eng- 
land had been discovered, in which she was a prime 
mover. Her accomplices rightly suffered the penalty of 
their crime, 2 and it was due to justice and to the safety 
of the country that the mainspring of the conspiracy 
should be disabled for further harm. But still the 
matter was a delicate and dangerous one, for Catholics 
were numerous in England, and the great Catholic con- 
federacy abroad was ready to take any advantage which 
a false step on the part of Elizabeth might give them. 
As we have seen, moreover, the feelings of the Queen 

1 Mendoza wrote to Philip (8th November): "When Cecil saw the 
papers (taken in Mary's rooms) he told the Queen that now that she had so 
great an advantage, if she did not proceed with all rigour at once against 
the Queen of Scotland, he himself would seek her friendship. These words 
are worthy of so clever a man as he is, and were intended to lead the other 
Councillors to follow him in holding the Queen of England back." It is 
evident from this that Mendoza did not consider Cecil to be Mary's enemy. 

2 Babington, Savage, Ballard, Barnewell, Tylney, Tichbourne, and Abing- 
don were executed at St. Giles-in-the-Fields on the 20th September. Mendoza 
says that as Babington's heart was being torn out he was distinctly heard to 
pronounce the word "Jesus" thrice. 



4 o6 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

of England herself with regard to the sacredness of 
anointed sovereigns was strong, and no more difficult 
problem had ever faced the Government than how to 
dispose of their troublesome guest in a way that should 
in future safeguard England from her machinations, 
whilst respecting the many susceptibilities involved. As 
usual in moments of difficulty, Elizabeth turned to her 
aged minister, 1 and as a result of a long private con- 
ference with him the question was submitted to the 
Privy Council. The Catholic members advocated only 
a further stringency in Mary's imprisonment. Leicester 
was in favour of solving the difficulty by the aid of 
poison, 2 whilst Burghley, followed by Walsingham and 
others, proposed a regular judicial inquiry, which was 
now legally possible by virtue of the Act of Association 
passed by Parliament in the previous year. A commis- 
sion was consequently issued on the 6th October for 
the trial of Mary, containing the names of forty-six of 
the principal peers and judges, and all the Councillors, 
but only after some bickering between the Queen and 
Burghley with regard to the style to be given to Mary 
and other details. 3 

Before this point had been reached, however, measures 
had been taken to test the feeling of foreign powers 
on the subject. Diplomatic relations had ceased between 
Spain and England ; but as soon as the Babington con- 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 2 Camden. 

3 Davison, who had just been appointed an additional Secretary of State, 
wrote to Burghley from Windsor (5th October) that the Queen did not like 
the wording, "Tarn per Maria filiam et hseredem Jacobi quinti nuper Scotoru 
Regis ac communiter vocatam Scotoru Regis et dotare Franciae." She wished 
it to be, " Tarn per Maria filiam &c. . . . Scotoru Regis et dotare Francise 
communiter vocata Regina Scotoru.'''' Thus it is seen that, although Elizabeth 
made no difficulty about acknowledging Mary as Queen Dowager of France, 
she would not recognise her as of right Queen of Scots. Davison adds that 
she was sending a special messenger to Burghley to discuss the matter with 
him. 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 407 

spiracy was discovered, Walsingham impressed upon 
Chateauneuf, the French Ambassador, that the Spaniards 
were at the bottom of it, and that it was directed almost 
as much against the King of France as against Elizabeth 
herself. The Ambassador himself was a strong Guisan, 1 
and personally was an object of odium and suspicion to 
the excited Londoners ; but his master's hatred of the 
Guises and dread of their objects was growing daily, and 
when Madame de Montpensier prayed Henry to inter- 
cede for the protection of Mary, she obtained but a cold 
answer; 2 and no official step by the French was taken in 
her favour at the time, except as a matter of justice Eliza- 
beth was requested that she might have the assistance of 
counsel. It was clear, therefore, that Henry III. would 
not go to war for the sake of his sister-in-law. 

Mary was removed to Fotheringay for trial on the 6th 
October, and on the following day Paulet and Mildmay 
delivered to her Elizabeth's letter, informing her of the 
charges against her, and the tribunal to which she was to 
be submitted. She indignantly refused to acknowledge 
Elizabeth's right to place her, an anointed sovereign, 
upon her trial ; but she denied all knowledge and com- 
plicity in the murder plot. This was the safest attitude 
she could have assumed, although the proofs against her 
already in the hands of Elizabeth were overwhelming ; 3 

1 He was the secret means of communication between Mendoza and his 
spies in England. 2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

3 Nau and Curll, the two Secretaries, had been closely examined by 
Burghley in London, and at first had denied everything, but subsequently 
when confronted with their own handwriting, were obliged to acknowledge 
— especially Nau — Mary's cognisance of Babington's plans. Nau afterwards 
(1605) endeavoured to minimise his admissions, but Mary's letter to Mendoza 
(Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 23rd November) which was not delivered 
or opened until long after Mary's death, leaves no doubt whatever that Mary 
considered he had betrayed her. Curll lived for the rest of his life on a 
handsome pension from Spain, but Nau got nothing. Mary's first answer to 
her accusers, that she was a free princess and not subject to Elizabeth's tribunal, 
had been foreseen by Beale (see his opinion, Harl. MSS., 4646). 



4 o8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

and the arguments of Burghley and Lord Chancellor 
Bromley failed to alter Mary's determination. This was 
embarrassing, and in the face of it Elizabeth wrote to 
Burghley 1 instructing him that, although the examination 
might proceed, no judgment was to be delivered until she 
had conferred with him. At the same time she wrote to 
Mary a letter of mingled threats and hope, with the 
object of changing her attitude towards the tribunal. 
This, added to the persuasions of Hatton, succeeded in 
the object, 2 and Mary, unfortunately for her, retreated 
from her unassailable position. 

On the 14th, two days afterwards, the tribunal sat in 
the great hall of Fotheringay Castle, and Mary, almost 
crippled with rheumatism, painfully hobbled to her place, 
supported by her Steward, Sir Andrew Melvil. On the 
right of the Lord Chancellor sat Lord Burghley. That 
the proceedings against Mary, in which he had from the 
first taken an active part, were in his opinion necessary 
for the safety of England, is clear from his many letters 
upon the subject ; but it is equally evident that if he 
could decently have avoided personal identification with 
them he would have been better pleased. His letters to 
Popham, the Attorney-General, show that he wished to be 
absent from the trial ; but as he wrote at the time to Sir 
Edward Stafford, the English Ambassador in France, " I 
was never more toiled than I have been of late, and yet 
am, with services that here do multiply daily ; and whoso- 
ever scapeth I am never spared. God give me grace." 

Much of the obloquy that has been unjustly cast upon 
him in the matter of Mary Stuart arises from his invete- 
rate habit of putting everything in writing, which other 
men did not do. For instance, the draft of the whole case, 
or, as he puts it, " the indignities and wrongs done and 

1 Queen to Burghley, 12th October (Cotton, Caligula, cix.). 

2 Camden Annals, and Life of Sir Thomas Egerlon. 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 409 

offered by the Queen of Scots to the Queen," is in his 
handwriting, 1 and the letters to the Queen detailing the 
progress of events at Fotheringay are sent from him, 
whilst Elizabeth's instructions through Davison are all 
addressed to Walsingham and Burghley. But it must 
be remembered that he was the Queen's most trusted 
and experienced Councillor, and the existence of records 
written by or to him does not show that he was more 
eager than the rest for the sacrifice of the Scottish 
Queen. 

Mary defended herself with consummate ability before 
a tribunal almost entirely prejudiced against her. She 
was deprived of legal aid, without her papers, and in ill 
health ; and, according to modern notions, the procedure 
against her was unjust in the extreme. Once she turned 
upon Walsingham and denounced him as the contriver 
of her ruin, but soon regained her composure ; and in 
her argument with Burghley, with respect to the avowals 
of Babington and her Secretaries, reached a point of 
touching eloquence which might have moved the hearts, 
though it did not convince the intellects, of her august 
judges. 2 But her condemnation was a foregone con- 
clusion ; and although the sentence was not pronounced 
until the return of the Commission to Westminster 
(October 25), Mary left the hall of Fotheringay practically 
a condemned felon on the 15th. 

But it was one thing to condemn and another thing 
to execute. Here Elizabeth's scruples again assailed 

1 Hatfield Papers, part iii. 

2 Howell's State Trials. Burghley writes to Davison (15th October, Cotton, 
Caligula) : " She has only denied the accusations. Her intention was to 
move pity by long artificial speeches, to lay all blame upon the Queen's 
Majesty, or rather upon the Council, that all the troubles past did ensue from 
them, avowing her reasonable offers and our refusals. And in these speeches 
I did so encounter her with reasons out of my knowledge and experience, as 
she hath not the advantage she looked for. And, as I am assured, the audi- 
tory did find her case not pitiable, and her allegations untrue." 



4 io THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

her. The two Houses of Parliament addressed her on 
the 12th November, begging that for the sake of the 
realm and her own safety the sentence might be carried 
into effect. At no point of her career was the profound 
duplicity of Elizabeth more resorted to than now. She 
had evidently determined that Mary must die, which is 
of itself not surprising ; but she was equally determined 
that, if she could help it, no blame should personally 
attach to her for having disregarded the privileges of a 
crowned head. After much pretended sorrow and re- 
pudiation of any desire for revenge, but at the same time 
setting forth a careful recapitulation of Mary's offences, 
she complained of Parliament for passing the Act which 
made it necessary for her to pronounce sentence of death 
on a kinswoman, and said she must take time for prayer 
and contemplation before she could give an answer to the 
petition. A few days afterwards she besought the Houses 
to consider again whether some other course could not 
be adopted instead of executing Mary, but she was 
assured by them that there was "no other sound and 
assured means " than that which they had formerly re- 
commended (18th November). Her next address to the 
Houses was still more hypocritical. After infinite talk 
of her mercy, her goodness, and her hatred of blood- 
shed, even for her own safety, she ended enigmatically : 
" Therefore if I should say I would not do what you 
request, it might be peradventure more than I thought, 
and to say I would do it might perhaps breed peril of 
what you labour to preserve, being more than in your 
own wisdoms and discretions would seem convenient." 1 
Several days before this, Mary's sentence had been 
communicated to her by Lord Buckhurst and Beale. 
She was dignified and courageous, rejoiced that she was 
to die, as she said, for the Catholic faith, and again 

1 Hollingshead. 



1586] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 41 1 

affirmed that she had taken no part in the plot for the 
murder of Elizabeth, which was doubtless true so far as 
active participation or direction was concerned. Her 
letters written immediately afterwards to Mendoza 1 and 
the Duke of Guise 2 are conceived in the same spirit, 
and appear to entertain no expectation of mercy. The 
Spaniards, however, were more hopeful, and ascribed to 
Burghley a deep scheme for selling Mary's life to France, 
in exchange for concessions to English interests. 

The arrangements for the invasion of England by a 
great fleet from Spain were now so far advanced as to be 
impossible of concealment, and the English Government 
were actively adopting measures of defence and reprisal. 
Under the transparent pretext of aiding Don Antonio, 
English armed ships were hounding Spanish commerce 
from the seas and harrying Spanish settlements ; the 
English troops under Leicester, and the Scots under the 
Master of Gray, were fighting Spaniards in Holland, 
and the English militant Protestant party had now sup- 
planted Burghley's policy on all sides. But still the 
cautious old statesman patiently worked in his own way 
to minimise the dangers with which his political oppo- 
nents had already surrounded the Queen. There were 
two things only that he could do, namely, once more to 
endeavour to disarm Spain by making a show of friend- 
ship, and to sow discord between France and Spain ; 
and both these things he did. One of Ralegh's privateers 
had captured Philip's governor of Patagonia, the famous 
explorer and navigator, Sarmiento ; and almost simulta- 
neously with the passing of Mary's sentence, Ralegh was 
invited to bring his prisoner to Cecil House for a private 
conference. Sarmiento was flattered and made much of, 

1 Mary to Mendoza, 24th November (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 
part iii.). 

2 Paris Archives : in extenso in Von Raumer. 



4 i2 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

and received his free release on condition of his taking to 
Spain messages from Burghley and Ralegh suggesting a 
friendly arrangement between the countries. Ralegh, 
indeed, went so far as to offer — whether sincerely or not 
does not affect the question — two of his ships for Philip's 
service, and for many weeks sympathetic messages found 
their way secretly from the Lord Treasurer and Sir 
Walter to Spain and Flanders. 1 

At the same time Sir Henry Wotton was sent to Paris 
with certified copies of Mary's will in favour of Philip, 
and of her correspondence with Mendoza. " He is 
instructed to point out how much she depended upon 
your Majesty, and how shy she was of France." 2 This was 
exactly the course most likely to alienate Henry III. from 
Spain and his sister-in-law ; and although he tardily sent 
Pomponne de Bellievre to remonstrate with Elizabeth, the 
Spaniards and Guisans, at all events, never believed in the 
sincerity of his protests. 3 Mendoza writes : " Elizabeth 
has given orders that directly Bellievre arrives in England 
the rumour is to be spread that the Queen of Scots is 
killed, in order to discover how he takes it. Bellievre, 
however, is forewarned of it, and has his instructions what 

1 Philip's secret agent in London wrote at the time urging that ' ' a 
message should be sent from Spain to the Lord Treasurer, who is the ruling 
spirit in all this business, and is desirous of peace, to let him know that your 
Majesty wished for his friendship" (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, part iii.). 

2 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, part iii. 

3 Bellievre did not arrive in England until 1st December, An account of 
his embassy will be found printed in Labanoff. The regular Ambassador, 
Chateauneuf, did his best, for he was a Guisan, but Elizabeth flatly told him 
she believed he was exceeding his instructions. His own doubts as to his 
master's real wishes are expressed in a letter to D'Esneval in Paris (20th 
October): " Je vous prie me mander privement, ou ouvertement, l'intention 
de Sa Majeste sur les choses de deca ; car il me semble que Ton se soucie fort 
peu de par dela du fait de la Reine d'Ecosse." Davison wrote to Burghley at 
Fotheringay (8th October), telling him of the "presumption" of Chateauneuf s 
first remonstrance, and the rebuke sent to him by the Queen "for attempting 
to school her in her actions." 



1 5 86] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 413 

to say when he hears it. It is a plan of Cecil's arising 
out of a desire (as I wrote to your Majesty) to sell to the 
French on the best terms they can what they do not 
dream of carrying out. The English and French will 
have no difficulty in agreeing on the point, because the 
King and his mother are very well pleased that the Queen 
of Scots should be kept alive, though a prisoner, in order 
to prevent the succession of your Majesty to the English 
throne ; whilst the English see plainly that the many 
advantages accruing to them from keeping the Queen of 
Scots a prisoner would change into as many dangers if 
they made away with her." 1 

On the 6th December public proclamation of Mary's 
sentence was made in London amidst signs of extra- 
vagant rejoicing on the part of the populace. The next 
day Bellievre delivered a long speech to the Queen, in 
which he made no attempt to deny Mary's guilt, but 
appealed to Elizabeth's magnanimity, and proposed 
guarantees from France to insure Mary's future harm- 
lessness. The Queen repeated bitterly her grievances 
against Mary, and replied that the life of Mary was in- 
compatible with her own safety ; and Lord Burghley, in 
a subsequent interview with the Frenchman, repeated 
more emphatically the same idea. Shortly afterwards, 
at the renewed request of Bellievre and Chateauneuf, 
Elizabeth ungraciously consented to grant a respite of 
twelve days to Mary to enable the Ambassadors to com- 
municate with their master. But Henry III. himself was 
now in a hopeless condition. " Such is the confusion of 
the court, the vacillation of the King, and the jealousy, 
hatred, and suspicion of the courtiers, that decisions are 
adopted and abandoned at random. . . . The King is 
trying to draw closer to the Queen of England, which is 

1 Mendoza to Philip, 7th December (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 
part iii.). 



4H THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1586 

the principal object of Bellievre's mission." x The only 
reply, therefore, sent to Bellievre and Chateauneuf from 
France was a pedantic and wordy appeal to Elizabeth's 
mercy, which must have convinced her that she need 
fear nothing from the French. 2 

Notwithstanding the first movement of indignation 
on the part of James also, it soon became clear that 
selfish reasons would confine his action to protest. This 
is not altogether to be wondered at. He had been in- 
formed that' Mary had disinherited him, and told De 
Courcelles, the French Ambassador, that he knew " she 
had no more good-will towards him than towards the 
Queen of England." The Master of Gray, at his side, too, 
was the humble servant of England, and the traitor, 
Archibald Douglas, represented him in the English 
court. On pressure from France, however, James sent 
Sir William Keith, another English partisan, to intercede 
for his mother, or at least to induce Elizabeth to delay 
the execution until a fitting embassy from him might be 
sent. Elizabeth hectored and stormed at James's threaten- 
ing letters ; but when she became calmer she granted the 
twelve days' respite already referred to. The Master of 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, part iii. In a marginal note to another 
letter, Philip himself expresses an opinion that Bellievre has gone, not to save 
Mary's life, but for another purpose. 

3 See Lord Burghley's notes of this appeal for his reply thereto (Hatfield 
State Papers, part iii.) ; and also Elizabeth's own most interesting letter to 
Henry III. (Harl. MSS., 4647). She ends by a hit at Henry's helpless 
position : " I beg you, therefore, rather to think of the means of preserving 
than of diminishing my friendship. Your States, my good brother, cannot 
bear many enemies ; do not for God's sake give the rein to wild horses, lest 
they throw you from your seat." Another characteristic step taken in England 
at the same time was to concoct a bogus plot to murder Elizabeth, in which 
it was pretended that the Ambassador Chateauneuf was concerned. This gave 
an opportunity for much anger and complaint on the part of Elizabeth, especi- 
ally against the Guises ; and in Lord Burghley's memoranda giving reasons 
for Mary's execution, this so-called plot of Stafford, Moody, and Destrappes 
is gravely set forth as a contributing factor. 



1 587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 415 

Gray and Sir Robert Melvil subsequently arrived at the 
English court and were equally unsuccessful. 1 Melvil 
undoubtedly did his best, and Elizabeth threatened his 
life in consequence ; but the Master of Gray's advocacy 
went no further than he knew would please the English 
Government. 

It is certain that Elizabeth herself had decided that 
Mary should die, if the execution could be carried out 
without uniting France and Spain against her, and 
especially if she herself could manage to escape personal 
opprobrium. Of Lord Burghley's personal opinion on the 
matter it is extremely difficult to judge. He is generally 
represented by historians as being the prime enemy and 
persecutor of the unhappy woman, which he certainly was 
not. He was a cautious man and took his stand behind 
legal forms ; but the slightest slackness on his part was 
represented by Leicester and his friends as a desire to 
curry favour with Mary. He, the Howards, Crofts, and 
the other conservatives were, as usual, desirous of 
staving off the rupture with Spain, but dared not appear 
for a moment to favour so unpopular a cause as that of 
Mary. The truth of this view is partly shown by the 
revelations of Sir Edward Stafford, the English Ambas- 
sador in Paris, a great friend of Burghley's and a paid 
agent of Spain. Stafford told Charles Arundell in January 
that Burghley had written that Bellievre had not acted 
so cleverly as they had expected, and if that he (Burghley) 
had not prompted him he would have done worse still. 

1 Gray's own feelings in the matter may be seen by his copious correspond- 
ence with Archibald Douglas, at Hatfield. He had, when he was in Flanders, 
proposed that Mary might be put out of the way by poison, and was hated 
by Mary's friends in consequence. " If she die," he said, " I shall be blamed, 
and if she live I shall be ruined ; " but he was forced against his will to accept 
the embassy and acted in a similar way to Bellievre — pleaded with strong 
words but weak arguments, in order that his own position might be saved 
whether Mary lived or died, 



416 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

" He was advised to ask for private audience without 
Chateauneuf, and was closeted with the Queen, who was 
accompanied by only four persons. What passed at the 
interview was consequently not known ; but that he 
(Cecil) could assure him (Stafford) that the Queen of 
Scotland's life would be spared, although she would 
be kept so close that she would not be able to carry 
on her plots as hitherto. This is what I have always 
assured your Majesty was desired by the Queen of 
England, as well as the King of France. Cecil also 
says that, although he has constantly shown himself 
openly against the Queen of Scots, Leicester and Wal- 
singham, his enemies, had tried to set the Queen against 
him by saying that he was more devoted to the Queen 
of Scotland than any one. But she (Elizabeth) had 
seen certain papers in her (Mary's) coffers that told 
greatly against Leicester, and the Queen had told the 
latter and Walsingham that they were a pair of knaves, 
and she saw plainly now that, owing to her not having 
taken the advice of certain good and loyal subjects of 
hers, she was in peril of losing her throne and her life, 
by burdening herself with a war which she was unable 
to carry on. She said if she had done her duty as 
Queen she would have had them both hanged." 1 

By this and several similar pronouncements it would 
appear that Burghley, true to his invariable method, 
was still by indirect and cautious steps endeavouring to 
lead the Queen back to the moderate path from which 
Leicester, Walsingham, and the militant Protestants had 
diverted her ; and that, very far from being the mortal 
enemy of Mary, he would probably have saved her if 
he could have done it with perfect harmlessness to him- 
self, and have insured the future security of the Queen 

1 Mendoza to Philip, 24th January 1587 (Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth, 
vol. iv.). 



1587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 417 

and Government. But whilst the Queen was very slowly 
being influenced by the Catholics and Conservatives near 
her, events were precipitated and Mary paid the last 
penalty. There is no space in this work to tell in 
detail the obscure and much debated story of the issue 
of the warrant for Mary's execution ; 1 but a summary 
glance at Burghley's share in it cannot be excluded in 
any biography of the statesman. Soon after the procla- 
mation of the sentence (6th December 1586) Elizabeth 
herself directed Burghley to draft the warrant for the 
execution. He did so, and sent for Secretary Davison — 
Walsingham being absent from illness — and informed 
him that as he, Burghley, was returning to London, 
the court then being at Richmond, he would leave the 
draft with Davison that it might be engrossed and 
presented to the Queen for signature. When Davison 
laid the document before the Queen she told him to 
keep it back for the present. Six weeks passed without 
anything more being done, and Leicester in the interval 
complained to Davison, in Burghley's presence, of his 
remissness in not again laying the document before the 
Queen. 

The Master of Gray left London at the end of 
January, and on the 1st February Lord Admiral Howard 
told the Queen that there was much disquieting talk in 
the country with regard to attempts to be made for the 
rescue of Mary, &c. 2 Elizabeth then requested Howard 
to send for Davison and direct him to lay the warrant 
before her for signature. The Secretary accordingly 
carried the warrant to the Queen, who was full of 
smiles and amiability, and asked him w T hat he had there. 
Davison told her, and she signed the warrant, explaining 

1 The matter is fully discussed in Nicolas's Life of Davison. 

2 It is curious that the warning should come from Howard, a Catholic and 
a Conservative, several of whose relatives were Spanish pensioners. 

2 D 



4i 8 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

to him whilst doing so, that she had hitherto delayed 
it for the sake of her own reputation. Then, with a 
joke, she handed the signed warrant back to him, and, 
according to Davison, bade him carry it at once to the 
Lord Chancellor, have it sealed with the great seal as 
privately as possible, and send it away to the Commis- 
sioners, so that she should hear no more about it. 

Elizabeth afterwards, however, swore that she had 
given him no such instructions. As he was leaving, Eliza- 
beth directed him to call on Walsingham, who was 
confined to his house by illness, and to tell him what 
had been done. She then spoke bitterly of Amias 
Paulet for not having made the warrant unnecessary, 
and hinted to Davison that he might write to Paulet 
again suggesting the poisoning of Mary. This Davison 
demurred at doing, as he knew that it would be fruitless, 
and he did not relish the task, but promised to mention 
it to Walsingham. The Secretary's story is that he went 
straight to Lord Burghley and showed him and Leicester 
the warrant, repeating the Queen's directions. He then 
proceeded to Walsingham House ; and the result of his 
visit is seen in a memorandum (dated the next day, 2nd 
February) in Walsingham's hand, annotated by Lord 
Burghley, laying down the steps to be taken for imme- 
diately carrying the warrant into effect. 1 The fullest 
details, even for the burial, are set forth, and at the end 
it is directed that " the Lords and court are to give out 
that there will be no execution." 

Thus far Davison's statement has been followed ; but 
there is at Hatfield (part iii., No. 472) a rough draft in 
Lord Burghley's handwriting, which, in view of the 
date upon it, 2nd February, throws rather a new light 

1 Hatfield Papers, part iii. There is no mention of the poison letter to 
Paulet, but it was written, and is printed in Nicolas's Life of Davison, with 
Paulet's reply. 



1587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 419 

upon the matter, and proves that, unknown to Davison, 
Lord Burghley and the rest of the Council were accom- 
plices of the Queen in her intention of subsequently 
repudiating her orders and ruining her Secretary, and 
that the tragi -comedy was not played by Elizabeth 
alone, but by her grave Councillors as well. The draft 
document is in the name of the Council, and sets forth 
the reasons that had moved them to despatch the warrant 
without further consulting the Queen ; " and yet we are 
now at this time most sorry to understand that your Majesty 
is so greatly grieved with this kind of proceedings and do 
most humbly beseech your Majesty" &c. This, be it remem- 
bered, is dated the 2nd February, before the warrant 
had been sent off or the Queen even knew it had been 
sealed. 

Early in the morning of the 2nd the Queen sent 
Killigrew to Davison, directing him not' to go to the 
Lord Chancellor until he had seen her. When he 
entered her presence she asked him, to his surprise, 
whether he had had the warrant sealed, and he in- 
formed -her that he had. Why so much haste ? she 
asked ; to which he replied that she had told him to use 
despatch. He then inquired if she wished the warrant 
executed. Yes, she said ; but she did not like the form 
of it, for it threw all the responsibility upon her, and 
again suggested poison as the best way out of her 
difficulty. 

All this made Davison suspicious, and he went to 
Hatton and told him that he feared the intention was 
subsequently to disavow him. He would, he said, take 
no more responsibility, but would go at once to Lord 
Burghley. This he did, and the latter summoned the 
Privy Council for next day ; whilst he, Burghley, busied 
himself in drafting the letters to the Commissioners, the 
Earls of Kent and Shrewsbury. The next morning 



4 2o THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

(3rd February) the Council met in Lord Burghley's 
room, and the Lord Treasurer laid the whole matter 
before them, repeating Davison's story, and recom- 
mending that the warrant should be despatched with- 
out further reference to the Queen. This was agreed 
to, and the instructions and warrant were sent the same 
night (Friday, 3rd February) to the Commissioners, 
Burghley himself handing the document to Beale to 
carry down into the country. 

The next morning when Davison entered the Queen's 
room at Greenwich she was chatting with Ralegh, and 
told the Secretary that she had dreamed the previous 
night that the Queen of Scots was executed, which made 
her very angry. It was a good thing, she said, that 
Davison was not near her at the time. This frightened 
Davison, and he asked her whether she really did not 
wish the warrant executed. With an oath she said she 
did, but again repeated what she had said the previous 
day about the responsibility, and " another way of doing 
it." A day or so afterwards, Davison informed the 
Queen that Paulet had indignantly refused Walsing- 
ham's suggestion to poison Mary, whereupon she broke 
into complaints of the " daintiness of these precise 
fellows," and violently denounced people who pro- 
fessed to love and defend her, but threw all responsi- 
bility upon her. 

On the 8th February the tragedy of Fotheringay was 
consummated, and in the afternoon of the 9th young 
Talbot brought the news to London. Lord Burghley 
at once summoned Davison, and after consulting with 
Hatton and others, it was decided not to tell the Queen 
suddenly. When she learnt it later in the day the well- 
prepared blow fell upon Davison. The Queen pre- 
tended to be infuriated, swore that she had never 
intended to have the warrant divulged, and whilst 



1 587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 421 

blaming all the Councillors, 1 threw most of the onus 
upon Davison. The Council advised him to retire from 
court/ and he was soon afterwards cast into the Tower 
and degraded from his office. After a long and tedious 
trial and a painful imprisonment, he was condemned 
to a fine sufficient to ruin him, and thenceforward lived 
in poverty and obscurity. The Earl of Essex fought 
manfully in his favour whilst he lived, but Lord Burghley 
and the rest of the Councillors were too strong for him, 
and the man they had ruined was never allowed to raise 
his head again. 2 

That Burghley and the other principal Councillors 
were parties to the plot, and that the Queen's anger 
with them was assumed, is also seen by a memorandum 
in Burghley's handwriting at Hatfield, 3 dated 17th Feb- 
ruary, headed " The State of the Cause as it ought to be 

1 The Queen kept up a pretence of anger against the Councillors for some 
time, and especially against Burghley, who on the 13th February wrote her a 
submissive letter praying for her favour. He was excluded from her presence, 
and complains that she " doth utter more heavy, hard, bitter, and minatory 
speeches against me than against any other," which he ascribes to the 
calumnies of his many enemies, and to the fact that he alone was not allowed 
to justify his action personally to her. "I have," he says, "confusedly 
uttered my griefs, being glad that the night of my age is so near by service 
and sickness as I shall not long wake to see the miseries that I fear others 
shall see that are like to overwatch me." When at length he obtained 
audience of the Queen, she treated him so harshly that he again retired, and 
was only induced to return again by the intercession of Hatton. Elizabeth's 
special anger with Burghley may have been an elaborate pretence agreed 
upon between them, or, what is more probable, the result of some calumnies 
of Leicester. 

2 An interesting statement of Burghley's treatment of Davison in later 
years will be found in Harl. MSS., 290. Part of his unrelenting attitude to 
him is commonly attributed to Burghley's desire to secure the Secretaryship 
of State for his son, Sir Robert Cecil. It is evident, however, that Davison 
was adopted by Essex as one of his instruments to oppose Burghley's policy, 
and the restoration of Davison would thereafter have meant a defeat for 
the Cecils. v This, it appears to me, amply explains the Lord Treasurer's 
attitude. 

3 Hatfield Papers, part iii. 223. 



422 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

conceived and reported concerning the Execution done 
upon the Queen of Scots/' in which the Queen's version 
is adopted, and all the blame thrown upon Davison and 
the Council. Even before this was written the affair 
was so reported to Burghley's friend Stafford in Paris, 
in order that this version might be spread on the Conti- 
nent. Charles Arundell, in conveying the news from 
Stafford to Mendoza, says that Burghley was absent 
through illness, 1 and that the execution was carried 
through by Davison, " who is a terrible heretic," and 
the rest of Mary's enemies. This is perhaps the blackest 
stain that rests upon Burghley's name. We have seen 
before that he was not generous or magnanimous in his 
treatment of others when his own interests were at stake ; 
and the sacrifice of Davison would probably appear to 
him a very small price to pay for helping Elizabeth out 
of a difficult position, and maintaining his own favour. 

Although we have seen that the Lord Treasurer from 
motives of policy had been forced to take a prominent 
part in the condemnation and execution of Mary, it can- 
not be supposed that the position of affairs at the time 
was agreeable to him. The wars in Flanders, the per- 
secution of English Protestants in Spain, the reprisals of 
Drake and the privateers, and the Catholic plots in the 
interests of Mary had aroused a strong Protestant war 
feeling in the country. Leicester and his friends had 
the popular voice on their side, and Burghley and the 
Conservatives could only very cautiously and tentatively 
endeavour to stay the impetus with which the country 

1 That Lord Burghley was desirous of dissociating himself personally from 
the execution, and of remaining on good terms with the Catholic party, is 
further seen by a remark made in a letter from Mendoza to Philip (26th 
March 1587): "Cecil, the Lord Treasurer, said publicly that he was 
opposed to the execution, and on this and all other points feeling was running 
very high in the Council ; Cecil and Leicester being open opponents " (Spanish 
State Papers, Elizabeth). 



1587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 423 

was rushing towards a national war with the strongest 
power in Christendom. The great Armada was in full 
preparation, and the ports of Italy, Flanders, Spain, and 
Portugal rang with the sound of arms. Don Antonio 
once more was welcomed in England, to be used as a 
stalking-horse, this being Lord Burghley's last hope of 
levying war without national responsibility. 

But though there was much talk about Don Antonio, 
and Spanish spies in England continued to report that 
the great fleet under Drake was to be employed in his 
interests, its real object was to render impossible, at 
least for that year, the junction of Philip's naval forces in 
Lisbon. Thanks to the efforts of Burghley and his party, 
an elaborate pretence was kept up of the expedition 
being a private one ; but it was really controlled and 
organised by government officers, and the second in 
command, Borough, was a Queen's admiral, sent avow- 
edly to place a check upon Drake, and to prevent him 
from going too far in his open attack upon Spain. 
Drake's instructions were " to prevent or withstand any 
enterprise as might be attempted against her Highness's 
dominions, and especially by preventing the concentra- 
tion of Philip's squadrons ; " and he was to distress the 
ships as much as possible, both in the havens themselves 
and on the high seas. Drake arrived in Plymouth from 
the Thames on the 23rd March, and in a week of inces- 
sant energy had everything ready. The secret of his 
intentions was well kept, and Mendoza's many spies 
could only tardily report the loose gossip of the streets. 
Sir Edward Stafford assured his Spanish paymaster that 
no living soul but the Queen and the Lord Treasurer 
knew what the design was to be. 

Leicester was now at Buxton (April 1587), shortly to 
start on another visit to Flanders, and in his absence 
Burghley's influence, both Ralegh and Hatton being on 



4 2 4 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

his side ; as well as Crofts and the Catholics, overshadowed 
that of Walsingham and Knollys. Drake seems to have 
feared the consequence of this, and hurried his departure 
from Plymouth (2nd April). He was only just in time, 
for as soon as he had gone a courier came in hot haste with 
orders from the Council, which now meant Burghley, 
strictly limiting Drake's action : * " You shall forbear to 
enter forcibly into any of the said King's ports or havens, 
or to offer any violence to any of his towns or shipping 
within harbour, or to do any act of hostility on land." 

This was exactly what Drake had foreseen. The 
ship sent after him with the orders failed to reach him, 
and the great seaman went on his way. But, as usual 
with Drake, the official drag on the wheel had to be 
overcome. Off Cape St. Vincent, Borough recited to the 
Admiral the conditions under which the Queen's ships 
accompanied him, evidently expecting that he would not 
confine his operations to preventing the concentration 
of the Spanish squadrons. But Drake was on his own 
element now, and sailed straight to Cadiz, as some people 
had shrewdly expected he meant to do from the first. 2 
Borough warned him not to exceed the Queen's orders, 
and was placed under arrest for his pains ; and unopposed, 
Drake sailed into Cadiz harbour, to the dismay of the 
astounded Spaniards. He plundered, burned, and sank 
all the ships in port, destroyed the stores, and then 
quietly sailed out again unmolested. He did damage to 
the extent of a million ducats (though Philip wrote that 

1 Walsingham, conveying this news to Leicester in Flanders (17th April), 
says : "There are letters written from certain of my Lords, by her Majesty's 
effectual command, to inhibit him (Drake) to attempt anything by land or 
within the ports of Spain." On the nth he wrote: "This resolution pro- 
ceeded altogether upon a hope of peace, which I fear may do much harm." 

2 The first hint to this effect reached Philip too late to be useful. It was 
conveyed by Mendoza from Stafford in Paris on the 19th April, the day that 
Drake reached Cadiz. 



1587J THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 425 

he felt the insolence of the act more than the material 
damage), and if he had cared to disobey the Queen's 
orders further he might have stopped the Armada for 
good by burning the ships in Lisbon, for they had 
neither guns nor men on board to protect them. But 
he knew now that the peace party in the Council were 
busy arranging with Parma's envoy for the meeting of 
a conference, and doubtless thought he had gone far 
enough in his brilliant disobedience. 

The indispensable Andrea de Looe had arrived in 
London from the Prince of Parma immediately after 
Drake sailed, and was soon deep in negotiation with 
Burghley with the object of arranging a meeting of 
Peace Commissioners. When he had returned to Brussels 
with the proposals, news came of Drake's daring raid. 
De Looe then wrote a long letter to Burghley (nth July), 
pointing out how much the cause of peace was injured 
by such acts of aggression. Burghley's answer 1 (28th 
July) perfectly defines his position towards Drake's 
action. After professing the Queen's desire for peace, 
and readiness to send her Commissioners to Flanders if 
the Duke of Parma will suspend hostilities (before the 
Sluys), he says: "True it is, and I avow it upon my 
faith, her Majesty did send a ship expressly with a mes- 
sage by letters charging him (Drake) not to show any 
act of hostility before he went to Cadiz, which messenger, 
by contrary winds, could never come to the place where 
he was, but was constrained to come home, and hearing 
of Sir Fras. Drake's actions, her Majesty commanded 
the party that returned to be punished, but he acquitted 
himself by oath of himself and all his company. And so 
unwitting, yea unwilling, to her Majesty those actions 
were committed by Sir Fras. Drake, for the which her 
Majesty is greatly offended with him ; and now also for 

1 Foreign Office Records, Flanders, 32. 



426 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

bringing home of a rich ship that came out of the East 
Indies." 1 And then, as some counterbalance to these 
enormities, Lord Burghley sets forth once more the 
various grievances of England against Spain. 

Whilst the elaborate and frequently insincere negotia- 
tions for peace were being laboriously pursued for many 
months, Lord Burghley's other standing policy was not 
neglected, namely, that of causing jealousy between France 
and Spain. Henry III. was now in mortal fear of Guise, 
and was ready to listen to English and Huguenot sugges- 
tions that Philip's conquest of England would be followed 
by a Guisan dynasty under Spanish patronage in France 
All the French influence at the Vatican was exercised to 
procure the conversion of James Stuart and the opposi- 
tion of Spanish aims, and before the end of the year Lord 
Burghley had the satisfaction of seeing that Henry III. 
and his clever mother in no case would aid Philip to 
subjugate England. 

Elizabeth, in the meanwhile, was assailed by doubts 
and fears, and periodical fits of penuriousness in the 
midst of her danger, which drove her Councillors to 
despair. Stafford told Mendoza that " Cecil writes that 
the Queen is so peevish and discontented that it was 
feared she would not live long. Her temper is so bad 
that no Councillor dares to mention business to her, and 
when even he (Cecil) did so, she had told him that she 
had been strong enough to lift him out of the dirt, and 
was able to cast him down again. He (Cecil) was of 
opinion that the Councillors might be divided into three 
classes — those who wished to come to terms with Spain, 
those who desired a close friendship with France, and 
those who wanted to stand aloof from both, whilst enrich- 
ing themselves with plunder. He (Cecil) was neither a 

1 This was the great galleon San Felipe^ one of the richest prizes ever 
brought to England. 



1587] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 427 

Spaniard nor a Frenchman, but wished the Queen to be 
friendly with both powers. King Henry, under whom 
the country was powerful and tranquil, thought he was 
doing a great thing when he was able to make war with 
France when he had an alliance with Spain ; and now 
it happened that the French were as desirous of being 
friendly as the English were, and he urges the Ambas- 
sador to hasten the conclusion of an agreement. 1 

But whilst he was writing amiably for the French, he 
took care, on the other hand, to make the most of the 
peace negotiations with Spain, and thus to cause Henry 
to be the more anxious for England's friendship. The 
old statesman was thus cautiously and slowly going on 
his traditional way, hopeless though he must have been 
of the final result as regarded keeping peace with Spain. 
The long-continued preparations of the Armada were 
rapidly approaching completion ; the Pope had been 
cajoled into promising funds unwillingly to aid Philip's 
aims ; the English Catholic refugees were eagerly await- 
ing the harvest of their efforts ; the great, cumbrous 
machine for crushing England was already in motion, 
and no efforts of diplomacy could stop it. 

But yet Burghley did his best. The war and plunder 
party, as usual, checked him at every turn ; but early 
and late, through constant pain and sickness, family 
trouble 2 and public disappointment, he struggled on in 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 

2 His mother, the owner of Burghley, had just died, aged eighty-five ; and his 
unmanageable son-in-law, the Earl of Oxford, still caused him endless trouble. 
His only family consolation at the time was the promise of his favourite son, 
Sir Robert Cecil, whose great talents and application were already remark- 
able. How incessant and varied Lord Burghley's labours still were may be 
seen by the great number of letters addressed to him, entreating him for help, 
influence, or advice. The Catholic Earl of Arundel from the Tower, the 
Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Buckhurst, Lord Cobham, and a host of other 
nobles appealed to him to forward their suits ; Puritan divines like Ham- 
mond, Cartwright, Humphreys, and Travels ; prelates like Whitgift, Aylmer, 



428 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1587 

the way he had marked out for himself so many years 
before — to divide England's possible enemies, and 
keep the peace with Spain so long as was humanly 
possible. The Queen was full of qualms and misgivings ; 
swaying now to one side, now to another, and abusing 
in turn both the party of peace and the advocates of 
war. " The Queen has been scolding the Lord Treasurer 
greatly for the last few days, for having neglected to 
disburse money for the fleet," wrote a Spanish spy in 
November ; and a few days afterwards, when she was 
alarmed at the delay in Parma's reply, she flew into 
a tremendous rage with Burghley, "upon whom she 
heaped a thousand insults," for having induced her to 
negotiate for peace whilst the enemy completed his 
preparations. " She told the Treasurer he was old and 
doting ; to which he replied that he knew he was old, 
and would gladly retire to a church to pray for her." 
But the old minister gave the Queen as good as she 
brought, and in vigorous words pointed out in detail 
that her present dangers arose entirely from her neglect 
of his advice and the imprudence of his opponents in 
the Council. 1 But the next day came Parma's answer, 
and the Queen was all smiles again towards Burghley 
and the peacemakers. 

Herbert, and Sandys, by common accord chose him as the arbiter of their 
constant disputes. The Court of Wards, too, entailed a large correspondence 
and much personal attention ; whilst at this period Burghley was also deeply 
concerned in checking the tendency of Cambridge students to indulge in 
1 ' satin doublets, silk and velvet overstocks, great fine ruffs, and costly facings 
to their gowns." 

1 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



CHAPTER XV 

1588-1593 

Whilst the tedious negotiations with Parma were drag- 
ging on, no slackness was visible in the preparations for 
resisting the attack on England. Drake was sent to the 
mouth of the Channel with a fine squadron of ships, 
whilst the Lord Admiral's fleet was being put in readiness 
in the Thames with all haste ; and Ralegh in Devon- 
shire, Hunsdon in the north, and Lord Grey and Sir 
John Norris in the home counties, were busily organising 
the land forces. As usual, upon Lord Burghley rested 
much of the labour and responsibility, and to him 
matters great and small were referred for decision. 1 The 
English preparations met with many difficulties. The 
Queen was fractious and fickle, one day hectoring and 
threatening, and the next cursing Walsingham and his 
gang, who had drawn her into this strait, and were for 
ever pestering her for money, which she doled out as 
sparingly as possible. There was, moreover, no great 
alacrity shown at first by the people at large in providing 
special funds to meet the great national emergency, and 
the trading classes were grumbling at Leicester and the 
greedy gentlemen whose piracy was largely responsible 
for the coming war. 

The sending of Peace Commissioners to Parma was, 

1 As instances see letters — Ralegh to Burghley, 27th December 1587 (State 
Papers, Domestic, ccvi. 40) ; Howard to Burghley, 22nd December (State 
Papers, Domestic, ccvi. 42) ; same to same (Harl. MSS., 6994, 102) ; Burghley's 
own holograph list of ships and their destinations, 5th January 1588; Hawkins 
to Burghley, 18th January 1588 (both in State Papers, Domestic, cviii.) ; and 
many similar papers of this period in State Papers, Domestic, cviii., and Harl. 
MSS., 6994. 



430 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1588 

as usual, the subject of division in the Council, Burghley 
naturally advocating the pacific policy, and Leicester, 
Walsingham, and Paulet violently opposing the negotia- 
tions except on impossible terms. The Queen wavered 
constantly, but was more frequently on the side of peace. 
Soon after Leicester returned from Holland (January 
1588) he opposed in the Council the sending of Com- 
missioners. A comedy was played the same night before 
the Queen and court, and as the company rose, Elizabeth 
turned upon Leicester in a great rage and told him she 
must make peace with Spain at any cost. " If my ships 
are lost," she said, " nothing can save me." Leicester 
tried to tranquillise her by talking about Drake ; but she 
replied that all he did was to irritate the enemy to her 
detriment. 1 

The instructions to the Peace Commissioners, as 
drafted by Burghley, 2 seem to be an honest attempt to 
come to terms. England was to pledge herself not to 
send aid of any sort, to the prejudice of Philip, to any 
of the dominions he had inherited (thus excluding Por- 
tugal), and Philip was asked, at least, to bind himself to 
prevent the molestation by the Inquisition of English 
mariners on board their ships in Spanish ports. But 
side by side with this there is reason to believe that Lord 
Burghley, probably through Crofts, endeavoured to gain 
the Duke of Parma personally to the side of peace. 3 
He had been badly treated by Philip in the matter of 
Portugal, and was still in the dark as to the King's real 
intentions. He was liable to dismissal at any moment ; 

1 Stafford told Mendoza (25th February) that Burghley had written to 
him saying, that he would do his best to prevent Drake from sailing, as his 
voyages were only profitable to himself and his companions, but an injury to 
the Queen and an irritation to foreign princes ; and in May, Burghley told 
Stafford that if he had remained out of town two days longer, his colleagues 
would have let Drake go. 

2 Hatfield Papers, part iii. 3 Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1588] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 431 

he was short of money, and chafing at the inexplicable 
delay of the Armada. It was suggested that a condition 
of the peace might be to give him fixity of tenure of his 
government of Flanders for life. How far these ap- 
proaches may have influenced him it is at present diffi- 
cult to say, but he certainly appealed to Philip earnestly 
and solemnly to allow him to make peace, 1 and when 
the Armada finally appeared in the Channel he did no- 
thing to falsify his own prediction of the disaster which 
awaited it. 

The English Commissioners 2 embarked for Ostend (a 
town in English-Dutch occupation) in March, but one 
of them, Crofts, a Spanish agent, made no hesitation of 
landing in Philip's town of Dunkirk and proceeding over- 
land to Ostend. After infinite bickering as to the place 
of meeting, the preliminary conferences were held in a 
tent between Ostend and Nieuport ; but on questions of 
procedure and powers the negotiations were delayed 
until the Armada had sailed from Lisbon, and Philip's 
pretence could be kept up no longer, when the Commis- 
sioners hurriedly returned. Crofts' desire to serve his 
Spanish paymasters, and to obtain peace at any price, 
caused him to go beyond his public instructions in making 
concessions, and at the instance of Leicester he was cast 
into the Tower on his return ; but the rest of the Com- 
missioners acknowledged that they had been tricked, and 
that Philip had never intended peace. Many persons 
had thought so from the first, though the delay had been 

1 This mission was said to have been entrusted originally to Paulet, and 
afterwards to Herbert ; but as they did not go to Flanders, it is more likely 
to have been left to Crofts. I can, however, find no record of it except in 
Spanish account. 

2 The Commissioners were the Earl of Derby, Lord Cobham, Sir James 
Crofts, with Valentine Dale and Rogers. Burghley's son, Sir Robert Cecil, 
was also attached. The whole correspondence of the Commissioners, mostly 
directed to Lord Burghley, will be found in Cotton, Vesp., cviii. 



432 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1588 

advantageous for England. The Lord Admiral, writing 
to Walsingham before the Commissioners left England, 
says : " There never was since England was England such 
a stratagem and mask made to deceive England, withal, 
as this is of the treaty of peace. I pray God we have not 
cause to remember one thing that was made of the Scots 
by the Englishmen ; that we do not curse for this a long 
grey beard with a white head, witless, that will make all 
the world think us heartless. You know whom I mean." * 
Though Burghley had struggled for thirty years to 
maintain peace with Spain, when war was inevitable he 
took far more than his share of the labour of organising 
it. As usual, he worked early and late, sometimes almost 
in despair at the Queen's penuriousness and irritability, 
and himself suffering incessantly. Whilst he was still 
striving for peace (10th April) he thus writes to Walsing- 
ham : " I cannot express my pain, newly increased in all 
my left arm. My spirits are even now so extenuated as 
I have no mind towards anything but to groan with my 
pain. . . . Surely, sir, as God will be best pleased with 
peace, so in nothing can her Majesty content her realm 
better than in procuring it. . . . So forced with pain, 
even from my arm to my heart, I end." 2 In the midst 
of the preparations, when Howard, Winter, Drake, and 
Hawkins were daily writing reports or requests to the 
over-burdened Lord Treasurer, his favourite but unfor- 
tunate daughter, Lady Oxford, died. In his diary he 
simply records the fact in the words, "Anna Comitissa 
Oxonise, filia mia charissima, obiit in Do. Greenwici et 
25, Sepult. Westminster ; " 3 but the bereaved father was 

1 Motley thought that Burghley was referred to, but surely Howard would 
not call him witless. Probably Crofts is meant. 

2 State Papers, Domestic, ccix. 

3 Howard, writing on the 13th June to Walsingham, says: "I forbear to 
write unto my Lord Treasurer because I am sure he is a very heavy man for 
my lady his daughter, for which I am most heartily sorry." 



1 5 88] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 433 

in a few days hard at work again, though still confined 
to his bed. 1 

At length, on the 30th July (N.S.), the long looked for 
Armada appeared in the Channel. The story of how the 
sceptre of the sea passed to England during the next 
week has often been told elsewhere, and need not be 
here repeated ; but Burghley's share of the glory at least 
must not go unrecorded. We have seen how the details 
of organisation were largely left in his hands ; but, in 
addition to this, like other great nobles, he raised a 
special force, clothed in his colours, and maintained at 
his expense, 2 and visited the army encamped at Tilbury, 
" where," says Leicester, " I made a fair show for my 
Lord Treasurer, who came from London to see us." It 
is usually asserted also that his two sons, Sir Thomas 
and Sir Robert, joined the English fleet, like so many 
other gentlemen of rank ; and although this may be 
true, for certainly Sir Robert was at Dover, 3 and might 
perhaps have gone on board one of the ships, it is ques- 
tionable, and their names do not appear in any of the 
records as being present. 

It was hardly to be supposed that the Spaniards would 

1 Writing to Walsingham, "from my house near the Savoy," 17th July, 
he says : " I am at present by last night's torment weakened in spirits, as I 
am not able to rise out of my bed ; which is my grief the more, because I 
cannot come thither where both my mind and duty do require ; " and yet on 
the same day he (Burghley) sent a long minute corrected with his own hand 
to Darrell, giving directions for the victualling of the navy. 

2 In September, when the news came of the flight of the Armada, grand 
reviews of these forces were held previous to their being disbanded. Lord 
Chancellor Hatton entertained the Queen at dinner in Holborn, and his hun- 
dred men-at-arms in red and yellow paraded before her Majesty. The next 
day (20th August) a similar ceremony took place at Cecil House, and shortly 
afterwards Leicester's troop was reviewed. But they were all thrown into the 
shade by Essex's splendid force of sixty musketeers and sixty mounted harque- 
bussiers, in orange-tawny, with white silk facings, and two hundred light 
horsemen, in orange velvet and silver. 

3 See his letter, 30th July (O.S.), to his father, giving him an account from 
hearsay of what had happened off Calais (State Papers, Domestic, ccxiii.). 

2 E 



434 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1588 

so readily submit to defeat as not to renew the attack, 
for Englishmen had not yet gauged the paralysing effect 
of Philip's system upon his subjects, and, like the rest of 
the world, took Spain largely on trust ; but Burghley was 
right in his forecast that the Armada itself was so broken 
and weak that it would run round Ireland and return no 
more. When the heroics in England were over and 
matters were settling down, there was still no cessation 
in the work of the Lord Treasurer. There were intricate 
victualling accounts to be laboriously calculated in per- 
plexing Roman numerals ; l there were wages to be paid ; 
captains and admirals to be brought to book for every 
item of their expenditure, for the Queen would have no 
slackness in that respect, even though the country and 
herself had been rescued from a great peril ; there were 
prisoners to interrogate, and plans to be made for future 
defence, and, as usual, Puritans and prelates, to be ap- 
peased and reconciled. The lion's share of all this fell 
to the gouty, crippled old man with the bright eyes, the 
grave face, and the snowy hair — to Lord Treasurer 
Burghley. 

Shortly after the disappearance of the Armada, Leices- 
ter died (4th September), on his way to Kenilworth, and 
Burghley lost the political rival who had continued to 
thwart him for nearly thirty years. Nothing proves more 
clearly Burghley's consummate prudence and tact than 
the fact that, to the very last, his relations with the Earl 
were always outwardly polite, and even friendly. 2 That 

1 The ordinary Arabic numbers were never used by Burghley, even in 
calculations. 

2 One of the last letters that Leicester wrote was to Burghley, from Maiden- 
head, two days only before his death, asking for some favour for a friend, Sir 
Robert Jermyn, and apologising for leaving court without taking leave of the 
Lord Treasurer ; and in November the widowed Countess of Leicester — the 
mother of Essex — wrote begging Burghley to use his influence with the Queen 
to buy a vessel belonging to her late husband. 



1 5 88] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 435 

this was not owing to the forbearance of Leicester is 
seen by his violent quarrels with Sussex, Arundel, 
Ormonde, Heneage, Ralegh, and others who crossed 
his path. 

The death of Leicester, together with that of Sir 
Walter Mildmay, which happened shortly afterwards, 
changed the balance of Elizabeth's Council. The old 
ministers were dropping off one by one and giving place 
to younger men, who could not expect to exercise over 
the experienced and mature ruler the same influence as 
that of her earlier advisers. In order to strengthen his 
party Lord Burghley had patronised Ralegh ; but Leices- 
ter had retorted by bringing forward his young step- 
son Essex, whom his dying father had left as a solemn 
charge to Burghley. Essex was a mere lad of twenty- 
two when Leicester died, and as yet too young to head 
a party against the aged minister ; but he had absorbed 
all the traditions of the dead favourite, and henceforward 
thwarted the Cecils to the best of his power with all the 
persistence of Leicester, but with a haughty incautious- 
ness which belonged to himself alone, and ultimately 
led him to his tragic death. 

Notwithstanding the crushing blow that Spanish power 
had received, English public feeling continued apprehen- 
sive and nervous. Spies abroad still sent alarmist reports 
of Philip's future plans, and few Englishmen had yet 
realised how completely their foe was disabled. When 
Parliament met, therefore, in February (1589), the largest 
subsidies ever voted were granted for the defence of the 
country, and the Houses petitioned her Majesty " to 
denounce open war against the King of Spain." 

There were, however, other ways of crippling the 
foe more acceptable both to the Queen and her prin- 
cipal minister. Since 1581 Elizabeth had been playing 
fast and loose with Don Antonio, the claimant to the 



436 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1588 

crown of Portugal. Leicester and Walsingham had 
more than once encouraged him to spend large sums 
of money in England — raised on the sale or security of 
his jewels — in fitting out naval expeditions in his favour, 
but nothing effectual had been done for his cause. 
Catharine de Medici, on the other hand, had counte- 
nanced the despatch of two fine expeditions from France 
to the Azores, both of which had been disastrously de- 
feated ; and in the Armada year Antonio again came 
to England to seek for aid against the common enemy. 
He was sanguine, and ready to promise anything for 
immediate aid. Just before the Armada arrived, the 
plan of diverting Philip's forces by an attack on Portu- 
gal had been broached by the Lord Admiral in a letter 
to Walsingham, but the Queen would not then hear of 
any of her ships being sent away. 

In September, however, circumstances had changed. 
It was useless to ask the Queen to accept the whole 
expense and responsibility of an expedition ; but in 
September 1588, Antonio saw Lord Burghley, who wrote 
down the plans and offers he made. If, said the pre- 
tender, he could once land in Portugal with a sufficient 
force, all the country would rise in his favour ; and his 
suggestion, supported by Sir John Norris and Sir Francis 
Drake, was to form a joint-stock undertaking with the 
countenance and help of the Queen and the Dutch, for 
the purpose of invading and capturing Portugal in his 
interest. In exchange he promised to pay the soldiers, 
and handsomely ; to allow them to loot Spanish pro- 
perty in Lisbon ; and, above all, to burn Philip's ships 
in Lisbon and Seville, and recoup the adventurers their 
expenditure with a large bonus. 1 If war were to be 
made at all, this was a method of making it likely to 

1 Lord Burghley's memoranda (State Papers, Domestic). For particulars 
of the expedition see " The Year after the Armada," by the present writer. 






1589] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 437 

find favour in the eyes of the Queen and Burghley ; and 
in February 1589 1 a warrant was issued authorising the 
expedition, and appointing rules for its government. 
Drake was to command at sea, and Norris by land, and 
the objects are carefully set forth in Burghley's words : 
" first, to distress the King of Spain's ships ; second, to 
obtain possession of the Azores in order to intercept 
the treasure ships ; and third, to assist Don Antonio to 
recover the kingdom of Portugal if it shall be found 
that the public voice be favourable to him." 

The Queen contributed -£20,000 and seven ships of 
the navy, and strict conditions were made that her 
money should not be wasted. But the affair was mis- 
managed from the first. Most of the men who went 
were idle vagabonds, the scum of the towns and the 
sweepings of the jails. The Dutch contingent fell away, 
the promises of support in England were not kept, 
money ran short, and the victuals went bad. The Queen 
lost her temper and began to frown upon the expedition 
when Drake's constant demands for further help became 
too pressing ; but finally, after weeks of galling delay, 
through bad weather and other causes, the expedition 
put to sea (13th April), nearly 200 sail of all sorts, with 
20,000 men. Shortly before it left, the Earl of Essex, with 
his brother and other gentlemen, had fled to Plymouth 
in disguise, shipped on board the Swiftsure and put to 
sea. 2 The Queen had specially refused him permission 

1 Don Antonio had been deceived so often in England, that although 
preparations for the expedition were being made for some months previously, 
he was not convinced that it was really intended for him until the end of 
the year 1588. 

2 On the eve of his flight Essex thus explained his action in a letter to 
Heneage (Hatfield Papers, part iii. 966) : " What my courses have been I need 
not repeat, for no man knoweth them better than yourself. What my state 
now is I will tell you. My revenue is no greater than when I sued my livery, 
my debts at least two or three and twenty thousand pounds. Her Majesty's 
goodness has been so great I could not ask her for more ; no way left to repair 



438 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1589 

to accompany the expedition ; and when she found that 
her favourite had disobeyed her, her fury knew no bounds. 

From that hour the expedition and commanders got 
nothing but ill words from her. Not content simply to 
burn the few ships in Corufia, the commanders lost a 
precious fortnight, in direct violation to orders, in be- 
sieging the place and burning the lower town. Wine 
was found in plenty, and excess incapacitated the greater 
part of the Englishmen ; pestilence and desertion worked 
havoc in their ranks, and subsequently, as a crowning 
disaster, Norris, persuaded by Antonio against Drake's 
advice, marched overland from Peniche to Lisbon, in- 
stead of forcing the Tagus. 

But Antonio had been deceived. None but a few 
country people joined him ; the Portuguese in Lisbon 
were utterly cowed by the firmness and severity of the 
Archduke Albert and his few Spaniards, and Norris had 
no siege artillery. After a few days of useless heroism, 
in which young Essex showed himself the brave, rash, 
generous lad he was, the attempt was abandoned ; and 
harassed by enemies in flank and rear, beset by famine, 
sickness, and panic, Norris, and what was left of his 
army, beat a retreat to Cascaes, where Drake and the 
ships awaited them. The Azores were never approached, 
and the ships in Lisbon and Seville were not burned, 
and the inglorious expedition slunk back again to Eng- 
land with a loss of two-thirds of its number of men. 

Although Burghley had drawn up the conditions of 
the Queen's aid to the expedition, he took no active part 
in its subsequent organisation, for a great sorrow was 
impending, which fell upon him ten days before the 
expedition sailed. He had lived in harmony and affec- 

myself but mine own adventure, which I had much rather undertake than 
offend her Majesty with suits, as I have done. If I speed well, I will ad- 
venture to be rich ; if not, I will not live to see the end of my poverty." 



1589] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 439 

tion with his wife for forty-three years, and her death 
on the 4th April cast him for a time into the deepest 
sorrow. 1 But even in the midst of his grief, his passion 
for placing everything on record led him to write a most 
interesting series of meditations on his loss, which is still 
extant. 2 Commencing by a reflection on the fruitlessness 
of wishing his " dear wife alive again in her mortal body," 
he proceeds at great length to lay down the direction his 
thoughts should take for consolation, such as gratitude 
to God for " His favour in permitting her to have lived 
so many years together with me, and to have given her 
grace to have the true knowledge of her salvation." But 
most of the curious document is occupied by a statement 
of the liberal anonymous charities of Lady Burghley, 
which during her life she had kept inviolably secret, 
even from her husband ; and as some indication of the 
reality of Lord Burghley's grief, it may be mentioned 
that he signs the paper " April 9, 1588. 3 Written at Col- 
ling's Lodge by me in sorrow." 

Through the whole course of his life we have seen 
William Cecil pursuing the traditional policy of suspicion 
of France and Scotland, and a desire to draw closer to 

1 His entry in his diary recording the fact runs thus : " 1589. April 4 
Die Veneris inter hor 3 et 4 mane obdormit in Domino, Mildreda Domina 
Burgley." She is interred at Westminster Abbey, with her daughter the 
Countess of Oxford ; a very long Latin inscription is on the tomb, written by 
Burghley, recording their many virtues and the writer's grief at their loss. 
There is at Hatfield (part iii. 973) a note of the mourners and arrangements 
for the funeral in Lord Burghley's handwriting. 

2 MSS. Lansdowne, ciii. 51. 

3 This is a not unnatural mistake under the circumstances for 9th April 
1589. The year then began on the 1st April, and in his sorrow Lord Burghley 
had overlooked the change of year. More than a month after this he wrote a 
letter, full of grief still, to his old friend the Earl of Shrewsbury, by which we 
see that he was still living in retirement in one of the lodges of his park at 
Theobalds, as it is signed "From my poore lodge neare my howss at Theo- 
balds, 27 Maii 1589. P.S. The Queene is at Barn Elms, but this night I will 
attend on her at Westminster, for I am no man mete for feastings." 



44Q THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1589 

the rulers of the Netherlands. But in his old age a series 
of circumstances which were impossible to have been 
foreseen, entirely revolutionised the political balance of 
Europe, and for a time led even Lord Burghley to re- 
verse his main policy. The heavy yoke of the Guises, 
doubly heavy now that they had the power of Spain 
behind them, had at last galled to desperation the 
vicious Valois who ruled France. The long-foretold 
and carefully-planned blow which had murdered the 
Duke of Guise and his brother, and rid Henry of his 
hard taskmaster, had been followed by a combination 
of all French Catholicism against the royal murderer. 
The subjects were declared to be absolved from their 
allegiance to the King, Paris flew to arms, the Church 
thundered denunciations, and the erstwhile royal bigot 
and monk, the figurehead of the Catholic League, the 
sleepless persecutor of Protestants, found himself driven 
into the arms of the only subjects he had who were not 
ready to tear him to pieces, namely, the Huguenots and 
excommunicated Henry of Navarre, the legitimate heir 
to the throne. Together they advanced upon Paris to 
crush the Guisan Catholics, and wreak vengeance upon 
the citizens who had deposed their sovereign. Henry 
of Navarre had often sought and obtained Elizabeth's 
help against the Catholics, and looked to her again in 
this supreme struggle which was to decide, as it seemed, 
the fate of France. For the first time, however, on this 
occasion English aid took the form of supporting the 
sovereign against rebels, instead of the reverse. 

In Scotland also the Catholic nobles had been busy 
intriguing for the landing of a Spanish force, which 
should coerce or depose James, and finally crush Pro- 
testantism there. 1 The plan had been discovered, and 

1 For the particulars of the Catholic plots of Huntly, Crawford, Errol, 
Claud Hamilton, and Bothwell (Stuart), see Spanish State Papers, Elizabeth. 



1589] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 441 

Elizabeth, who had again made sure of James, had urged 
him to severity, and offered him support if necessary 
against his Catholic nobles. So that in Scotland, as in 
France, it was Catholicism that represented rebellion, and 
Protestantism in both countries looked to England to up- 
hold legality. That the position struck Lord Burghley as 
curious is seen in a letter from him to Lord Shrewsbury x 
(16th June). "The world," he says, "is become very 
strange ! We Englishmen now daily desire the pros- 
perity of a King of France and a King of Scots. We 
were wont to aid the subjects oppressed against both 
these Kings ; now we are moved to aid both these Kings 
against their rebellious subjects ; and though these are 
contrary effects, yet on our part they proceed from one 
cause, for that we do is to weaken our enemies." In 
another letter he says, " Seeing both Kings are enemies 
to our enemies we have cause to join with them." In 
fact, once more for a time religious union had become 
stronger than national divisions. It was the Protestant- 
ism of England, France, Scotland, and Holland, led 
by Elizabeth, against militant Catholicism everywhere, 
championed by the Spanish King. 

Six weeks after the above letter was written the 
changed position towards France was further accentuated 
by the murder of Henry III. at the hands of a fanatic 
monk in the interests of the Catholics. With the 
Huguenot Henry of Navarre as King of France, and 
with Spain as the power behind the League, England 
and France were pledged to the same cause. The main 
sources of distrust in England against France always 
had been the fear that the latter power might dominate 
Flanders or gain a footing in Scotland. James's adhe- 
sion to the Protestant party, his alliance with England, 
and his growing hopes of the English succession, had 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 



442 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1589 

made the latter contingency one which might now be 
disregarded, whilst the possession of strong places in 
the Netherlands in English hands, the religion of the 
new King of France, and his need to depend upon 
England for support, rendered it in the highest degree 
improbable that he would dream of conquering and 
holding Spanish Flanders against the wish of Elizabeth. 

For the last three years Elizabeth had continued to 
supply Henry of Navarre with large sums of money to 
pay mercenaries ; but if Henry was to reign over France 
he must now fight the League and Spain ; and to enable 
him to do this, England would have to subscribe more 
handsomely than ever. Henry accordingly sent Beauvoir 
la Node to London to push his master's cause. Great 
quantities of ammunition were shipped to the coast of 
Normandy, whither Henry had retired with his army ; 
but men were wanted too, and on the 17th August 
Beauvoir dined with the Lord Treasurer at Cecil House, 
and concluded an arrangement by which Elizabeth was 
to lend 300,000 crowns to pay for German reiters in 
the spring, and to make a cash advance to Henry of 
70,000 crowns. 

By a letter from Beauvoir in the following year 
(16th June 1590) it is clear that Burghley's old distrust 
of the French had not been overcome without difficulty. 
"At last," he says, "I have conquered the Lord Treasurer ! 
Now it must be borne in mind that if the Queen says 
'Do this,' and Burghley says 'Do it not,' it is he who 
will be obeyed. Still I find him easier and more tract- 
able than he was ; these are humours that come and 
go, like the wind blows. Nevertheless he does well, 
though he is not one of those who act up to the pro- 
verb 'Quis cito dat, bis dat."' In the same despatch 
Beauvoir fervently urges the King to keep his promise 
with regard to the payment for the ammunition, &c, 



1589] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 443 

supplied to him. He says that the failure to meet such 
engagements is called in England " to play the Vidame." J 
" For God's sake/' he continues, " make provision for 
payment, or abandon all hope of getting anything else 
here except on good security." 2 

Henry's first attack on Paris failed, and he was forced 
to retire (November 1589) ; but he sent the gallant old 
hero La Noue to Picardy to withstand the League there. 
When young Essex heard of his proximity he was 
anxious to join him. 3 From the first he had been 
trying to persuade the Queen to send national forces 
under his command to aid the Huguenots, but cautious 
Burghley was always at hand to hint at expense and 
responsibility, and the auxiliary English troops under 
Willoughby, now in Henry's service, were complaining 
bitterly of the hardships and penury they were under- 
going. A great fleet also was being fitted out in Spain, 
the destination of which was kept secret, but rumours 
ran that it was coming to England, or what was almost 
as bad, to capture a French port in the Channel as a 
naval base from which the invasion of England could 
be effected. Brittany was held by the Duke de Mercceur 
for the League by Spanish aid, and already (January) 
overtures had been made by him to Philip to occupy a 
port on the coast. 

1 The Vidame de Chartres was the Huguenot agent in Elizabeth's court 
for some years, and was constantly craving aid for the cause. His promises 
of repayment were very rarely kept, as the Huguenots had most of the wealth 
of France against them. Hence the saying quoted. 

2 Egerton MSS., 359. 

3 "November 30. I have heard a rumour that you have arrived at 
Calais, and that if the enemy comes to attack that place you will be there 
with troops to defend it. If this news be true I pray you let me hear it from 
yourself, and advertise me by the ordinary courier what the enemy is doing 
and what you think of these designs. For I shall be very happy to see some 
opportunity by which we could together win honour and serve the common 
weal. I am idle here, and have nothing to do but to hearken for such oppor- 
tunities." (Essex to La Noue ; Hatfield Papers, part iii.) 



444 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1590 

But whether England was to be attacked direct or 
a Brittany port first taken possession of, it behoved 
Elizabeth to stand on her guard, and on the 15th March 
a great plan for the muster and mobilisation of troops 
all over England was issued by the Lord Treasurer. 1 On 
the day before the order was made in England the 
Huguenot King had gained the great battle of Ivry, 
crushing Mayenne's army and rapidly beleaguering Paris 
again. For the moment, therefore, Henry was able to 
hold his own, and the apprehension of the English 
Government was mainly directed towards Brittany, where 
a Spanish force of 4000 men were supporting the Duke 
de Mercceur ; and the claim of Philip's daughter to the 
duchy, if not to the crown of France, was being 
advanced. 

Burghley's age was now telling upon him greatly. 
He had become very deaf, and almost constant gout 
kept him crippled ; but still he remained, as ever, the 
resource of every one with an appeal to make, a question 
to be decided, or an end to be served. 2 The recent 
death of Walsingham (April 1590) left him the only 
one of the Queen's early Councillors, except Crofts, 
who died soon afterwards, and Sir Francis Knollys, 

1 Hatfield Papers, part iv. 

2 A letter from Sir John Smith to Burghley, 28th January 1590, expresses 
sorrow "to hear that you were very dangerously sick, being next unto her 
Majesty, in my opinion, the pillar and upholder of the Commonwealth. How- 
beit, I am now very glad to hear you have recovered your health ; " to which 
the Lord Treasurer appends the note "relatio falsse " (Hatfield Papers, partiv.). 
Later in the year, however (October), the Clerk of the Privy Seal, writing to 
Lord Talbot, says, " I never knew my Lord Treasurer more lusty or fresh 
in hue than at this hour." How heavily business still pressed upon the Lord 
Treasurer is seen by a remark of his in a letter to Mr. Grimstone (January 1591) : 
" The cause " (of his not having written) " is partly for that I have not leisure, 
being, as it were, roundly besieged with affairs to be answered from north, 
south, east, and west ; whereof I hope shortly to be delivered by supply of 
some to take charge as her Majesty's principal secretary" (Bacon Papers, 
Birch). 



1 59i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 445 

whose fanatical Puritanism and anti-Prelatism still gave 
much trouble to the Treasurer. The latter had evidently 
marked out his brilliant younger son Robert Cecil 
for Walsingham's successor ; and certainly no better 
choice could have been made, for he had for some time 
past relieved his father of some of his most laborious 
work, and had imbibed much of his policy and method. 
The mere hint of such an intention, however, was 
sufficient to arouse the opposition of Essex, who, either 
out of generosity or in a mere spirit of contradiction 
of "the Cecils," took up the cause of Davison, and 
endeavoured to bring him back to office. 1 The Lord 
Treasurer was powerful enough to prevent that ; but 
did not push the matter to extremes by obtaining the 
appointment of his own son until some years afterwards, 
although Robert Cecil was knighted (May 1591) and 
was sworn a Member of the Privy Council shortly after- 
wards (August 1 591), and thereafter practically discharged 
much of the duty of Secretary of State. 2 Burghley has 
frequently been blamed for a want of generosity towards 
Davison at this juncture. He was, as we have had 
occasion to notice more than once, not a generous man ; 

1 Soon afterwards, Essex was at issue with Robert Cecil about the appoint- 
ment of a successor to one of Heneage's offices (Essex to Sir Henry Unton ; 
Hat held Papers, part iv.). How bitter Essex was against the Cecils is shown 
by a letter from him to Sir Henry Unton in Paris (June 1591) : "Things do 
remain in the same state as they did. They who are most in appetite are 
not yet satisfied, whereof there is great discontentment. If it stand at this 
stay awhile longer they will despair, for their chief hour-glass hath little sand 
left in it t and doth run out still. " 

2 In one of the letters suggested by the secret intelligence secretary, 
Phillips, to be written to English Catholics abroad (31st August 1591), Robert 
Cecil's appointment to the Council is noted; "but the Queen seems deter- 
mined against Robert Cecil for the Secretaryship ; but my Lord being sick, 
the whole management of the Secretary's place is in his (Robert's) hands, and 
as he is already a Councillor, any employment of him between the Queen and 
his father will be the means of installing him in the place " (State Papers, 
Domestic). 



446 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1591 

but this was a crucial trial of strength between him and 
young Essex, and if Davison had been reappointed 
Secretary of State the influence of Burghley would have 
suffered irreparably. It was obvious now that Essex 
was determined, if possible, to force Elizabeth into an 
aggressive policy, especially against Spain, and it was 
exactly this policy which Burghley still devoted his life 
to opposing. But it is clear that the Treasurer did not 
gain his point with regard to Davison without some 
little trouble. Whilst the matter was in dispute he 
pleaded his age and infirmities as a reason for his com- 
plete retirement from office ; 1 and such a hint always 
brought the Queen to her bearings. 

He, however, absented himself from court and stayed 
in dudgeon at Theobalds, where the Queen, to pacify 
him, paid him a stately visit in May, and the notes at 
Hatfield in the Lord Treasurer's writing show that on 
this occasion, as usual, the smallest details of the Queen's 
reception were arranged by him. Whilst there the Queen 
appears to have written the extraordinary jocose letter 
to "The disconsolate and retired spryte, the hermite of 
Tyboll," in which, with tedious and affected jocularity, 
Hatton, in her name, exhorts him to return to the world 
and his duty. He must have done so promptly, for he 
was with the court at Greenwich again as busy as ever 

1 He expressed this wish as soon as Essex's opposition to Robert Cecil's 
appointment became manifest. A letter (State Papers, Domestic) from Hatton, 
15th July 1590, thus refers to the matter : " We can well witness your endless 
travails, which in her Majesty's princely consideration she should relieve you 
of; but it is true the affairs are in good hands, as we all know, and thereby 
her Majesty is the more sure, and we her poor servants the better satisfied. 
God send you help and happiness to your better contentment." Nearly all 
through 1590 and 159 1 repeated reference is made in his correspondence to 
Burghley's infirmities. This, added to the everlasting disputes between the 
Prelatists and the Puritans, in which he was between two fires, and the 
galling opposition of Essex to his son's appointment, might well have excused 
his desire to be relieved of his heavy burden. 



159*] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 447 

in a fortnight, writing to Mr. Grimstone, the agent in 
France, a letter (June), which shows that already the old 
distrust of French methods was reasserting itself. " In 
truth, her Majesty findeth some lack that the King doth 
not advertise her more frequently of his actions and 
intentions ; and especially she findeth it strange that 
there is no more care had for the state of Brittany, in 
that the King sendeth no greater forces thither to 
encounter the Spaniards' new descents, or to recover 
such port towns as be of most moment. And her 
Majesty is truly comforted with certain successes that 
have happened in Brittany since the arrival (there) of 
Sir John Norreys." 1 The letter ends with an emphatic 
reminder of Henry's obligations to Elizabeth, and a 
somewhat doubting hope that he will be properly 
grateful. 

Henry naturally was for winning Paris, the head- 
quarters of the League and the capital of his realm, and 
he was already giving pause to Elizabeth and Burghley 
by his willingness to " receive instruction " from priests, 
with a view to his conversion. What from the English 
point of view was most to be feared was that he might at 
last be forced or cajoled into consenting to a partition 
of France, in which the Infanta's claim to the Duchy of 
Brittany, which was a very strong one, should be acknow- 
ledged. This would have brought the Spaniards into the 
Channel opposite England, and have completely altered 
the balance of power. Already Don Juan del Aguila had 
a firm grip upon the port of Blavet, and Elizabeth's 
Government were pressing Henry to direct his attention 
to the north of France, where the League had occupied 

1 Bacon Papers, Birch. Sir John Norris had recently gone to Brittany 
with a small English auxiliary force, and had captured Guingamp. There 
were also 600 Englishmen in Normandy and an English squadron on the 
Brittany coast. Burghley holds out hopes also of sending 600 more men to 
Brittany. 



448 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1591 

most of the principal ports, except Dieppe. Henry him- 
self was reducing Chartres and other places near Paris, 
whilst his officers in the north, with inadequate forces, 
were doing their best to recover the coast towns. 

At the urgent desire of Elizabeth, Henry promised 
to come to Normandy, 1 and Essex prevailed upon the 
Queen to give him command of a considerable English 
force to besiege Rouen 2 (July). The young Earl was in 
semi-disgrace in consequence of his recent marriage with 
Walsingham's daughter (Sir Philip Sidney's widow), but 
the Queen gave him strict orders not to expose himself 
to danger. Henry, however, did not keep his word to 
meet Essex on the coast, and as soon as Essex landed, 
made an attempt to utilise the English force elsewhere. 
Essex was indignant, and rushed off to Noyon to remon- 
strate with Henry. 3 When, however, Rouen was at last 
besieged, he violated the Queen's commands and took 
an active part in the siege. 4 

1 Henry wrote one of his clever characteristic letters to Elizabeth (5th 
August), expressing in fervent terms his delight at hearing of her intention of 
coming to Portsmouth during his visit to Normandy. He swears eternal 
gratitude, and begs her to allow him to run across the Channel ; "et baiser 
les mains comme Roi de Navarre, et etre aupres d'elle deux heures, a fin que 
j'aie ce bien d'avoir veu, au moins une fois, en ma vie, celle a qui j'ai consacre 
et corps et tant ce que j'aurai jamais ; et que j'aime et revere plus que chose 
que soit au monde." Referring to Essex's force, he says: "Le secours que 
qu'il vous a pleu a present m'accorder m'est en singuliere grace, pour la qualite 
de celluy auquel vous avez donne la principale charge, et pour la belle force 
dont il est compose." (Hatfield Papers, part iv.) 

2 The Earl's brother, Walter Devereux, was killed in the siege. 

3 Essex seems to have quarrelled with every one in France, and the Coun- 
cil in England condemned his proceedings from the first. In a letter to the 
Council (September) he says the whole purport of their letters is "to rip up 
all my actions and to reprove them " (Hatfield Papers, part iv.). The Queen 
also wrote him a very angry letter (4th October) consenting on strict condi- 
tions that the English shall only be allowed to remain a month longer in 
France. 

4 From a long letter from Burghley (22nd October), Essex appears to have 
again left his command and run over to England. He begged Burghley to 
ask the Queen's permission for him to join Biron at the siege of Caudebec. 



1 59i] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 449 

At length Elizabeth declared that she would be played 
with no longer by him, and he was forced to return to 
his infuriated mistress, 1 whilst the siege of Rouen dragged 
on for months longer, sometimes in the presence of 
Henry himself, until the arrival of Parma and Mayenne 
caused it to be abandoned (May 1592). The anger of 
the Queen with Essex and the war-party was increased 
by the ill success in the autumn (1591) of the attempt to 
intercept the Spanish treasure fleet off the Azores ; 2 and 
for a time "the Cecils" had their way, which was to 
administer just so much aid, and no more, as should pre- 
vent Maurice of Nassau in Holland and Henry of Navarre 
in France from succumbing to the power of Spain, whilst 
the Queen in the meanwhile railed at Navarre for his 
shiftiness, and at Essex for his disobedience. Her Eng- 
lishmen, she said, had been badly treated and exposed 
to undue hardships, her advances were unpaid, nobody 
was grateful to her ; and in future she declared, that 
though Henry might have her prayers he should have 
no more of her money. 

The Lord Treasurer says he had not done so, as he was sure the Queen 
would refuse. Her strict orders were that neither Essex nor his men should 
risk themselves at the siege of Havre or elsewhere except by her orders. 
Essex appears to have disobeyed, and returned to France at once without 
seeing the Queen. During his absence the Englishmen had deserted wholesale. 
Burghley says there were not 2000 of them remaining — they were unpaid and 
mutinous, and, according to Biron and Leighton, were committing outrages 
on all sides. Beauvoir de Node wrote to Essex as soon as he had gone 
back to France (22nd October), " Les courroux de la reine redoublent." 

1 See the Queen's very angry letter peremptorily recalling him (24th De- 
cember 1 591), (Hatfield Papers, part iv.). 

2 The heroic but unprofitable result of the expedition was the famous fight 
of the Revenge and the death of Sir Richard Grenville, who quite needlessly, 
and out of sheer obstinacy, engaged the whole Spanish squadron. The great 
difficulty of getting the expedition together is seen by the large number of 
towns which addressed Lord Burghley personally or the Council, begging on 
the score of poverty to be excused from fitting the ships, as they had been 
commanded to do. Southampton, Hull, Yarmouth, Newcastle, and other 
towns professed to be so decayed as to be quite unable to contribute ships 
(Hatfield Papers, part iv.). 

2 F 



450 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1592 

The determined efforts of Essex and his party, and 
more especially of the two Bacons, Francis and Antony, 
to wound and discredit the Cecils, stopped at no incon- 
sistency. From their earliest childhood the Earl and the 
Bacons had been attached to the Puritan party, and still 
posed as its champions ; and yet they were the first to 
endeavour to cast upon Burghley the odium of the severe 
proclamation and fresh persecution of the seminary 
priests that had been considered necessary. 1 From the 
action of Allen, Persons, and their friends at the time of 
the Armada, from the letters intercepted by Burghley 
disclosing the Jesuit plot in Scotland, and from the con- 
tinued bitter writings of Person's directed against Eliza- 
beth and her minister, it was beyond question now, that 
whatever may have been the case at the beginning of 
their propaganda, the aim of the seminarists was simply 
to undermine and overturn the political government of 
the country. 2 And yet the Bacons, nephews of Burghley 

1 The reports of spies of plots in Flanders at the time amply justified the 
precautionary measures taken. Burghley was still appealed to by both reli- 
gious parties, and he appears at this time to have been claimed by both. In 
March 1591 one of the spy-letters suggested by Phillips to be sent abroad 
mentions Burghley's feud with Archbishop Whitgift and his favour to the 
Puritans. The Catholic spy in Flanders, Snowdon, in June of the same year, 
says that the anti-Spanish English Catholic refugees there, Lord Vaux, Sir 
T. Tresham, Mr. Talbot, and Mr. Owen were opposed to the plots then in 
progress. "It is said amongst them that if occasion be offered they will re- 
quite the relaxation now afforded them by his Lordship's (Burghley's) modera- 
tion, for it is noted that since the cause of the Catholics came to his arbitrament 
things have gone on with wonderful suavity (State Papers, Dom.). On the 
other hand, Phillips (in July) tells another spy, St. Mains, of the extravagances 
of the fanatics, Hacket, Coppinger, and Ardington, and speaks of Burghley 
as being on the side of the Puritans. 

2 In a spirited reply (Hatfield Papers) to a remonstrance of Antony 
Standen, Lord Burghley insists that Catholics who were punished by death in 
England are "only those who profess themselves by obedience to the Pope to 
be no subjects of the Queen ; and though their outward pretence be to be sent 
from the seminaries to convert people to their religion, yet without reconciling 

'■ them from their obedience to the Queen they never give them absolution." 
Those, he says, who still retain their allegiance to the Queen, but simply 



1592] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 451 

and sons of a fiercely Puritan mother, prompted by the 
double spy Standen and men of the same evil class, 
almost violently took up the cause of the persecuted 
Catholics when they thought it would injure the kinsman 
to whom they owed so much, and his son, of whom they 
were jealous. 1 

The renewed severity against the seminarists at this 
time was certainly not without justification. The shifty 
James Stuart was again listening to the charming of his 
Catholic nobles and the agents of Spain, though doubt- 
less with the intention of outwitting them, and from all 
sides came the news of a powerful fleet being prepared 
in the Spanish ports either for England, Scotland, or 
Ireland. For a time in the autumn of 1592, whilst Lord 
Burghley was accompanying Elizabeth through the 
southern counties, 2 a perfect panic of apprehension 
fell upon the people ; partly, it must be confessed, 

absent themselves from churches, are only fined in accordance with the law. 
The same contention is more elaborately stated in Lord Burghley's essay on 
"The Execution of Justice." The examinations of various spies, giving 
alarming accounts of the plots in Flanders at this time to kill the Queen 
and Burghley (State Papers, Domestic}, afford ample proof that Lord 
Burghley's contention as to the aims of the Spanish seminarists was 
correct. 

1 Francis Bacon frankly confessed that he adhered to Burghley's enemies 
because he thought it would be for his own personal advantage as well as for 
that of the State ; and his brother Antony writes (Bacon Papers) : " On the 
one side, I found nothing but fair words, which make fools fain, and yet even 
in those no offer or hopeful assistance of real kindness, which I thought I 
might justly expect at the Lord Treasurer's hands, who had inned my ten 
years' harvest into his own barn." 

2 It was during this progress at Oxford that the circumstance thus related 
by Sir J. Harrington happened : " I may not forget how the Queen in the 
midst of her oration casting her eye aside, and seeing the old Lord Treasurer 
standing on his lame feet for want of a stool, she called in all haste for a stool 
for him ; nor would she proceed in her speech till she saw him provided. 
Then she fell to it again as if there had been no interruption." Harrington 
says that some one (probably Essex) twitted her for doing this on purpose to 
show off her Latin. 



452 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1592 

caused by the fear of reprisals for the ceaseless ravages 
of the English upon Spanish shipping. Burghley him- 
self had always been opposed to these ravages, 1 and had 
steadily refused to accept any share in the profits of them ; 
but when the prizes were brought back he took care that 
the Queen's share was not forgotten. A good instance 
of this occurred in 1592. Ralegh and the Earl of 
Cumberland with some associates fitted out a powerful 
expedition to intercept the treasure galleons, and, if 
possible, to raid some of the Spanish settlements. When 
the squadron had sailed, Ralegh was suddenly recalled 
by the angry Queen and thrown into the Tower (May) 
for having married. 

The Roebucky Ralegh's own ship, captured off Flores 
amongst other prizes the great carrack Madre de Bzos, 
which reached Dartmouth on the 8th September. The 
riches she contained were beyond calculation ; pearls, 
amber, musk, and precious stones, tapestries, silks, 
spices, and gold formed her cargo. Plunder began 
long before she reached England, and when the news 
came of the capture the great road to the west was 
crowded by Jew dealers, London tradesmen and fine 
ladies and gentlemen on their way to buy bargains. 
Ralegh's sailors were already sulky at the imprisonment 
of their beloved master, and when attempts were made 
by the shore authorities to recover some of the plunder 
and prevent further peculation, they became unmanage- 
able. Sir John Hawkins wrote to Lord Burghley that 
Ralegh was the only man who could bring them to 
order. 2 But Ralegh was in the Tower, "the Queen's 
poor prisoner " ; and it needed all the Lord Treasurer's 

1 Writing to Archibald Douglas advising him how to excuse as well as he 
might the depredations of Scotsmen on Danish shipping, he says in a post- 
script, " I write not this in favour of piracies, for I hate all pirates mortally" 
(Hatfield Papers, part iv.)« 2 Lansdowne MSS., lxx. 



1592] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 453 

influence, working on Elizabeth's greed, to obtain per- 
mission for Sir Walter, still under guard, to go down 
to Devonshire and set matters straight. 1 Preceding 
him by a few hours on the same errand went Sir 
Robert Cecil, whose letters to his father on his journey, 
detailing the measures he had adopted on the way to 
intercept the plunder, are extremely graphic and inter- 
esting. 2 

Such depredations upon Spanish shipping as this — 
and they were of constant occurrence — although they 
might enrich the adventurers, and to some extent even 
the Queen, were a means of keeping the English people 
generally in a constant state of apprehension, and ren- 
dering legitimate commerce dangerous and difficult. 
As we have seen, Lord Burghley had steadily set his 
face against piracy of all sorts, and Sir Robert Cecil 
followed his lead. Ralegh had from his first appear- 
ance at court been a friend of the Cecils, as against 
Leicester and Essex, and he still remained on their side ; 
but he was greedy and unscrupulous, and certainly from 
the time of the capture of the great carrack the cordiality 
between the Cecil party and himself diminished. 3 The 
talk of the court generally was that Burghley was jealous 
of the rise of all men who might compete with his 

1 Lansdowne MSS., lxx., and Hatfield Papers, part iv. 

2 Through the whole of the autumn and winter Lord Burghley was busy 
in the liquidation and division of the vast plunder brought in the carrack. 
Ralegh had risked every penny he possessed, and came out a loser. The 
Queen got the lion's share, and the adventurers, with the exception of Ralegh, 
received large bonuses. 

3 One of Thomas Phillips' suggested spy-letters to be sent abroad (22nd 
March 1591) says that although the Puritan party is the weaker, Essex has made 
Ralegh join him in their favour. Ralegh's Puritan birth and breeding naturally 
gave him sympathy for Essex's party, whilst his active temperament and his 
greed made him in favour of war, especially with Spain. His only tie with the 
Cecils was his early political connection. Though he was usually in personal 
enmity with Essex, his natural bent was therefore more in sympathy with 
Essex's party than with that to which he was supposed to be attached. 



454 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1592 

beloved son Robert ; and Ralegh's friend Spenser puts 
the thought in verse (" The Ruins of Time ") thus : — 

" O grief of griefs ! O gall of all good hearts ! 
To see that virtue should despised be 
Of him that first was raised for virtuous parts, 
And now broad spreading like an aged tree, 
Lets none shoot up that nigh him planted be." 

That Lord Burghley in his failing age should desire to 
continue his policy through his son was perfectly natural, 
especially as in his case the son was in every way worthy 
to succeed him ; and it is not fair to blame him for mean 
filial jealousy to the detriment of Ralegh, as Spenser 
does, for Ralegh, although nominally his adherent, was 
in the matter of the Puritans and aggressive action 
against Spain, acting rather on the side of Essex. It 
is to this fact that Ralegh owed his life-long disappoint- 
ment at being excluded from the Privy Council. 

That Essex and his party were sleepless in their 
attempts to undermine the influence of the Cecils there 
is abundant evidence to prove. Amongst many others, 
an interesting letter from Ralph Lane to Lord Burghley 
(March 1592) may be quoted. 1 Sir Thomas Cecil and 
his more brilliant younger brother had quarrelled whilst 
their father was staying in retirement at Theobalds, sick 
and sorry. " The world speaks of your Lordship's grief," 
writes Lane, " and thinks it proceeds from the differences 
between your two sons. The matter is not great, but the 
humours short. That which grieves your well-wishers, 
who are the true well-wishers of her Majesty and the 
State, is that it has been misrepresented to her Majesty 
so as to injure you for credit and wisdom, and that these 
hard constructions made against you to her are the 
principal cause of your own grief. Good men moan 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 



1592] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 455 

that her Majesty is sought to be deprived in this dan- 
gerous time of so wise and approved a Councillor. I 
hope that no envy will make her Majesty disconceit a 
personage the choice of whom in the beginning of her 
reign prognosticated her future greatness." 

But Elizabeth, though she might listen to the 
youngsters who sought to contemn her aged Coun- 
cillor, knew his worth better than they, and much as 
he desired rest, when it came to the pinch, she always 
refused to let him go. Only a few days after the above 
letter was written, indeed, Lord Burghley received a 
life-grant of Rockingham Forest, part of the lands of 
the deceased Lord Chancellor Bromley, as if in answer 
to the detractions of his enemies. Another instance of 
the dependence of the Queen upon him and of his de- 
votion to his duty happened in June. He had gone 
to Bath to seek alleviation from the gout which had 
afflicted him all the spring, and writes from there to 
the Queen, who was on her progress, enclosing her an 
important letter from her Ambassador in France. " I 
would," he says, " have attended your Majesty myself 
with it, but I am in the midst of my cure and may not 
break off without special harm and frustrating my re- 
covery, which is promised in a few days. But still I 
will risk all, and come if your Majesty desires it." 1 

1 Numerous similar instances of this devotion occur in the letters of 
Burghley to his son and others. In April 1594 he writes to Sir Robert from 
Cecil House, that as her Majesty desires to have him there (Greenwich) 
to-day, he will go, if it be her pleasure that he should leave his other engage- 
ments. He then recounts his various duties for the day, including sitting all 
the morning in the Court of Wards, " with small ease and much pain," and 
again in the afternoon ; the next day he had to preside in the Exchequer 
Chamber, the Star Chamber, &c. ; " but if her Majesty wishes I will leave 
all. I live in pain, yet spare not to occupy myself for her Majesty." In 
July he writes to his son, " I can affirm nothing of my amendment, but if my 
attendance shall be earnestly required I will wear out my time at court as 
well as where I am" (State Papers, Domestic). How great and generally 



456 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1592 

The persistent attacks upon Burghley and his policy 
were not confined to Essex and the Puritans. The 
Spanish Jesuit party in Flanders, which in former 
years had often looked upon him with sympathy and 
sometimes with hope, now cast upon him the re- 
sponsibility of everything that happened in England, 
even when the policy was dictated by Burghley's oppo- 
nents. In all the plots of Holt, Yorke, Archer, Cahill, 
and the rest of the desperadoes in Flanders, Burghley 
was one of the principal objects of attack. " He was 
but a blood-sucker," said Yorke ; and the latter swore 
he would lay a poisoned glowing coal in his way and 
kill him. 1 Burghley, he said, had poisoned the young 
Earl of Derby in order to marry his grand-daughter to 
the Earl's brother. " England was governed by the 
Machivellian policy of those who would be kings, and 
whom it is time were cut off ; " 2 and much more of the 
same sort. These grosser calumnies and accusations of 
corruption 3 were in most cases obviously false, and could 
hardly have caused Lord Burghley very deep concern ; 
but the most artful of his enemies, Father Persons, well 

recognised his influence still was is seen by the depositions of what disaffected 
persons said of him. Prestall (Kinnersley's deposition, State Papers, Domestic, 
1 591) said "the Lord Treasurer was the wizard of England, a worldling 
wishing to fill his own purse, and good for nobody ; so hated that he would 
not live long if anything happened to the Queen." ■* The Treasurer led the 
Queen and Council, and only cared about enriching himself." 

1 Declarations of Kinnersley, Young, and Walpole (1594), State Papers, 
Domestic. 2 Ibid. 

3 In accordance with the practice of the time Burghley doubtless re- 
ceived presents from suitors for office and others (see State Papers, Domestic) ; 
but it is on record that he frequently refused such offerings when they assumed 
the form of bribes to influence judicial decisions or questions of account. 
Above all, there is no proof that he accepted any bribes from Spain, even 
when almost every other Councillor of the Queen was paid by one side or the 
other. Several mentions are made in the Spanish State Papers of the ad- 
visability of paying him heavily, and even sums were allotted for the purpose ; 
but I have not found a single statement of his having accepted such payments ; 
although in after years his son certainly did so. 



1593] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 457 

knew the weak point in his armour, and wounded him to 
the quick in his books, in which he pretended to show 
that the Lord Treasurer was of base origin, his father a 
tavern-keeper, and he himself a bell-ringer. 1 We have 
seen in a former similar case that attacks upon his an- 
cestry almost alone aroused Lord Burghley's anger; and 
an anti-Spanish Catholic writing at the time (January 
1593) records how deeply he was pained by the books 
of Persons and Verstegen just published, " which," he 
says, "will do the Catholics no good." 

The division, indeed, between the two parties of 
Catholics was now well denned. Those who adhered to 
Spain and the Jesuits were of course bitterly inimical to 
moderate statesmen like the Cecils, whose efforts would 
naturally tend to bring about a compromise with James 
or Arabella Stuart for the Queen's successor, peace with 
Spain, and toleration for Catholics. The Vatican, the 
French, the Venetians, and many of the English and 
Scottish Catholics abroad were in favour of this solu- 
tion ; 2 and the English Catholic secular clergy were 
enlisted almost entirely on the same side. The extreme 
parties, however, were naturally violently opposed to 
compromise of any sort ; so that the Cecils, as leaders 
of the peaceful and moderate party, were the target for 
envenomed attacks at the same time both of Spanish 
Jesuits, who wished for a purely Catholic England under 

1 Francis Bacon answered the book in an able pamphlet published the same 
year (1592), called " Observations upon a Libel published in the Present Year," 
in which Lord Burghley and Sir Robert Cecil are very highly lauded. 

3 One of the loyal English Catholics, St. Mains, writing (January 1593) to 
Fitzherbert, says that "the Lord Treasurer has been dangerously ill, but is 
now well recovered, thanks be to God ; for the whole state of the realm de- 
pends upon him. If he go, there is not one about the Queen able to wield the 
State as ,it stands." The principal Catholic refugees against Spain at this 
period were Charles Paget, William Gifford, the Treshams, Hugh Griffith, 
Dr. Lewis, Bishop of Cassano, the Scottish Carthusian Bishop of Dunblane, 
Thomas Morgan, Thomas Hesketh, Nicholas Fitzherbert, &c. 



458 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1593 

Spanish auspices, and the militant Protestant party led 
by Essex, who aimed at a purely Protestant England 
and an aggressive war with Spain. 

The bitterness of party feeling was promptly de- 
monstrated at the meeting of Parliament in February. 
Intelligence of continued armaments in Spain, and the 
recent revelations of informers as to the anti-English 
plots hatched in Flanders, had rendered necessary the 
employment of large sums for the national defence. A 
statement of the apprehensions entertained was made in 
the House of Lords by the Lord Keeper Puckering, and 
in the Commons by Sir Robert Cecil, the substance 
of both speeches having been previously drafted by Lord 
Burghley. The patriotism of the members was appealed 
to in fervent terms to provide funds for maintaining the 
national independence. The Puritan party, aided by 
Ralegh, fanned the flame and sought to pledge the 
Houses to an offensive war ; and with but little dissent a 
treble subsidy was voted, payable in four years. Francis 
Bacon l struck a discordant note by asking that the pay- 
ments should extend over six years. The people were 
poor, he said, and hard pressed ; do not arouse their dis- 
content " and set an evil precedent against ourselves and 
our posterity." Sir Robert Cecil somewhat indignantly 
answered his cousin's speech, and the Queen and Lord 
Treasurer soon made their displeasure felt, and Francis 
Bacon could only protest his loyalty and sorrow for his 
offence. If only he could wound the Cecils and bring 
himself into the good graces of Essex, he seemed to care 
but little. 

The House of Commons, as usual, had a strongly 

1 Francis was member for Middlesex, whilst his brother Antony sat for 
Wallingford. The Queen remained angry with Francis for many months. It 
was only in September that Essex with the greatest difficulty obtained per- 
mission for him to appear at court (Bacon Papers, Birch). 



i 5 93] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 459 

Puritan leaven, and the indefatigable Peter Wentworth 
once more incurred the Queen's anger by bringing for- 
ward the succession question. Whilst the Puritan leaders 
in the Commons were being sent to the Tower and the 
Fleet, 1 the bishops were preparing a blow which should 
demolish for good all attempts at attacks against the 
Establishment. A new extreme sect called Independents 
or Brownists had gained considerable popularity. Other 
Nonconformists resisted the orders of the Church, and 
opposed the authority of prelates, but the Brownists 
were for disestablishment altogether. Their leaders, 
Barrow and Greenwood, and several others, were in 
prison ; but their followers were many, and growing 
in number, and the prelates were determined to stamp 
out this new danger to the Church, come what might. 
Several Brownists were arraigned for sedition, on the 
ground that attacks upon the Establishment were attacks 
upon the Queen. Barrow and Greenwood were found 
guilty, and condemned to death. During the prosecu- 
tion the prelates in the Lords had passed a severe bill 
against recusancy, designed to press more hardly against 
Brownists than even against Catholics. On the 31st 
March the condemned men were dragged to Tyburn, 
with all the hideous formalities usual in executions for 
felony ; and when the ropes were already around their 
necks, a reprieve suddenly arrived. Lord Burghley 
himself, though seriously ill, had insisted upon a sus- 
pension of the sentence. " No Papist," he said, " had 
suffered for religion, and Protestants' blood should not 

1 Morice was sent to Tutbury Castle and kept there in prison for some 
years for making a speech in this Parliament complaining of the grievances of 
the Puritans. Wentworth was sent to the Tower, and Stevens and Walsh to 
the Fleet. Puckering, the Lord Keeper, told the House that the Queen had 
not called it together to make new laws ; there were more than enough already. 
"It is, therefore, her Majesty's pleasure that no time be spent therein" 
(D'Ewes). 



460 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1593 

be the first shed, at least before an attempt was made 
to convince them." We are told also that he spoke 
sharply to the Archbishop (Whitgift). The recusants 
bill went to the lower House on the 4th April, and 
Ralegh amongst others made a vigorous speech against 
it. The opposition in the Commons, we are told, 1 
hardened the prelates' hearts, and both Barrow and 
Greenwood suffered the last penalty two days after- 
wards, to be followed in their martyrdom for Protestant 
Nonconformity by many others all over the country. 

This case has been stated here somewhat at length, 
because it has become usual to cast upon Lord Burghley 
the odium for cruel persecution both of Catholics and 
Protestants, in disregard of the fact that there were 
in England two extreme parties struggling with each 
other, he being, so far as religion was concerned, 1: 
moderator between the two. He was, of course, the 
most prominent man in the Government, but he only 
maintained his influence by avoiding the extremes of 
both parties, and in order to do this he was obliged 
to refrain from running strongly counter to either. 
It may be said that in this case of the Brownists, as 
well as that of the Catholics, he might have firmly put 
his foot down and have prevented the sacrifice ; but 
in that event he would not have been William Cecil, 
Lord Burghley, and he would not have held the tiller 
of the State for forty years. 

In the summer, Essex received a strange and power- 
ful coadjutor in his policy of aggressive war against 
Spain. He and his friends the Bacons, much to the 
Puritan Lady Bacon's concern, were already deep in 
confidence with Standen, and other double spies and 
professed Catholics, the object apparently being to 
organise, for the benefit of Essex, a separate spy system, 

1 Phillips' suggestions to Sterrell (State Papers, Domestic). 



1593] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 461 

independent of the universal network controlled by the 
Cecils. The new recruit to Essex was a man of a very 
different calibre to the other instruments. Antonio 
Perez, the former all-powerful minister of Philip II., 
was at deadly feud with his master, and had been 
welcomed at the court of France as the bitterest enemy 
of his native country. He was one of the most brilliant 
and fascinating scoundrels that ever lived, and soon 
won the good graces of the jolly Bearnais, who was 
already meditating what he called the " mortal leap " 
of going to Mass, and turning the Huguenot Navarre 
into the Catholic King of France, eldest son of the 
Church. He had depended much upon Elizabeth's 
help ; although of late that had been slackening as 
Essex's influence waned, and he knew that the step 
he was about to take would turn her full fury upon 
him. Who could so plausibly plead his cause and 
inflame the hearts in England against Spain as this 
mordant foe of Philip, who knew every weakness, every 
secret, of his former master ? So in June, Perez went 
to England with Henry's blessing, and with the cold 
permission of Elizabeth, for she had no love for traitors, 
and Burghley knew Perez's errand. 

When he arrived he found Elizabeth already fuming 
at Henry's apostasy, and complaining bitterly to Beau- 
voir de Node of his master's ingratitude. 1 She refused 
absolutely to receive the " Spanish traitor," and the cau- 
tious Cecils gave him a wide berth. Essex in some 

1 Elizabeth seems to have received the first hint of his intention in May, 
and Lord Burghley sends an indignant letter to his son about it (26th May). 
He ends by saying, '* If I may not have some leisure to cure my head, I shall 
shortly ease it in my grave ; and yet if her Majesty mislike my absence, I will 
come thither" (Hatfield Papers, part iv.). See also letters of Sir Thomas 
Edmunds (State Papers, France, Record Office) ; and Elizabeth's curious 
letters to Henry (July), signed, " Votre tres assuree soeur si ce soit a la vielfe 
mode : avec la nouvelle je n'ay qui faire, E. R." (Hatfield Papers). 



462 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1593 

notes to Phillips, soon after Perez's arrival, directs him to 
set informers to work to discover the real reason of the 
Spaniard's coming. Lord Burghley, he says, has seen 
him once, and the Earl of Essex twice. " Burghley only 
wished to compare his judgment with his own experi- 
ence ; but he (Essex) wished to found upon Perez some 
action, for all his plots are to make war offensive rather 
than defensive." 1 Essex soon got over his doubts, and 
plausible Perez stood with Bacon 2 ever at his right hand, 
living at his cost, writing his biting gibes, weaving his 
plots against Philip, and with his matchless ability and 
experience advising the young Earl how best to drag 
England into war with Spain, even though Henry was 
a Catholic, and so to outwit the watchful Cecils. It 
was not long, too, before he flattered and wormed him- 
self into the good graces of the Queen, who gave him 
a handsome pension ; and so gradually the war-party 
gained ground in Elizabeth's councils, for in this Ralegh 
too was on the side of Essex, and the ceaseless talk of 
the intrigues of the Jesuits kept the English war feeling 
at fever heat. 

Most of the routine work formerly falling upon 
Lord Burghley was now undertaken by his son. 
Letters from all quarters, and upon all subjects, came 
to Sir Robert, whose diligence must have been almost 
as indefatigable as that of his father ; but apparently 
only those of special importance and touching foreign 
affairs were submitted to the Lord Treasurer. But 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 

2 How deeply Lady Bacon resented her son's friendship with Perez 
is seen in a letter of hers to Francis Bacon: "I pity your brother; but 
yet so long as he pities not himself, but keepeth that bloody Perez, yea, 
a court companion and a bed companion — a proud, profane, costly fellow, 
whose being about him I verily believe the Lord God doth mislike, and 
doth the less bless your brother in credit and in health. Such wretches as 
he is never loved your brother, but for his credit, living upon him " (Bacon 
Papers, Birch). 



i 5 93] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 463 

though Sir Robert might be diligent, he certainly 
lacked the high sense of dignity which had always been 
characteristic of his father. At a time when courtiers 
vied with each other in addressing almost blasphemous 
flattery to the Queen, when all the firmament was ran- 
sacked to provide comparisons favourable to her Majesty's 
beauty and wisdom, Lord Burghley, although always 
respectful and deferential to the Queen, never sacrificed 
his dignity to please her. 

That his son was more of a supple courtier than he, 
is seen by the address penned by him to be delivered to 
the Queen by a man dressed as a hermit on her entrance 
to Theobalds, where she passed some days on a visit to 
the Lord Treasurer, in October. For turgid affecta- 
tion and grovelling humility this production could 
hardly be excelled by the egregious Simier, or Hatton 
himself. The subject evidently has reference to the 
Queen's previous visit to the house when Lord Burghley 
was in deep trouble and living in retirement. On that oc- 
casion there was much affected verbosity about the Lord 
Treasurer as a hermit, and in October 1593, when the 
pretended hermit addressed her Majesty, he reminded her 
that the last time she came, " his founder, upon a strange 
conceit to feed his own humour, had placed the hermit, 
contrary to his profession, in his house, whilst he (Burgh- 
ley) had retired to the hermit's poor cell." Whilst his 
founder (Burghley) lived he was assured that he would 
not again dispossess him (as he never turned out tenants) 
" Only this perplexeth my soul, and causeth cold blood in 
every vein, to see the life of my founder so often in peril, 
nay, his desire as hasty as his age to inherit his tomb. But 
this I hear (which is his greatest comfort), that when his 
body, being laden with years, oppressed with sickness, 
having spent his strength in the public service, desireth 
to be rid of worldly cares, even wheri he is grievously 



464 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1593 

sick and lowest brought, what holds him back and 
ransometh him, is the fear that my young master may 
wish to use my cell. And therefore, hearing of all the 
country folks, I meet, that your Majesty doth use him 
in your service, as in former time you have done his 
father, my founder, and that though his experience and 
judgment be not comparable, yet as report goeth he 
hath something in him like the child of such a parent," 
he (the hermit) begs the Queen, whose will is law, to 
bid Robert Cecil to continue in active life, and leave to 
the hermit the cell granted to him by his father. 

This was doubtless considered at the time a highly 
ingenious device for asking the Queen for a reversion 
of the fathers' offices for the son, and is certainly not 
lacking in the worldly wisdom which looks ahead ; but 
surely never was any man's coming death talked about 
so much in his lifetime, and with so little constraint, as 
that of Lord Burghley. 2 

1 Nichols' Progresses, vol. iii. 

2 Burghley appears to have been very dangerously ill a few weeks after- 
wards at Windsor. Essex's spy Standen wrote to his friend Antony Bacon 
(6th November) that he had gone up to the Lord Treasurer's lodging to 
inquire after his health ; but was refused admittance by the servants, who 
told him, however, that his Lordship had rested better than on the previous 
night. Whilst Standen " was going down the stairs, the Queen was at my 
back, who, unknown to me, had been visiting my Lord, so I stayed among the 
rest to see her Majesty pass. A little while after I met Mr. Cooke, who told 
me, that true it was that my Lord had somewhat rested the night past ; but 
that this morning his Lordship had a very rigorous fit of pain, and dangerous " 
(Bacon Papers, Birch). We hear from the same source of similar attacks in 
December and January following. 



CHAPTER XVI 

I594-I598 

All through the year 1593 Lord Burghley's agents in 
Spain had sent news of the powerful naval preparations 
being made at Pasages, Corufia, and elsewhere, and the 
war-party at home and abroad had strained every nerve 
to induce the Queen to assume the offensive. Raleigh, 1 
Drake, and Hawkins supported Essex in his efforts ; 
but the caution of " the Cecils," the Queen, and the 
Lord Admiral restrained, as well as might be, the 
ardour of the forward party. 

There were, indeed, many elements of danger near 
home which amply justified a cautious policy. James 
Stuart's extraordinary lenity to the Catholic lords who 
had rebelled against him, and his known dallying with 
Spain and Rome, again suggested the possibility of a 
Spanish invasion of England over the Border, simul- 
taneously with a rising of Catholics in England. The 
almost complete control of the coast of Brittany by the 
Spaniards, their recent seizure and fortification of a 
strong position in Brest harbour, and their continued 
intrigues in Ireland, all pointed to the aggressive policy 
against this country which Philip's newly reorganised 
fleet enabled him to adopt. What would have caused 
but modified alarm to England a few years before, 
became much more terrible now that Henry IV. had 

1 " I hope you will remember," wrote Raleigh to Howard, "that it is the 
Queen's honour and safety to assail rather than to defend" (Hatfield Papers). 

465 2 G 



4.66 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1594 

become a Catholic and was making peace with the 
League. Elizabeth and her trusted advisers, therefore, 
kept Drake and Hawkins at home, and with the exception 
of sending Frobisher and Norris in the autumn of 1594 
to oust the Spaniards from Brest harbour, 1 stood on the 
defensive. 

Essex, often in temporary disgrace with the Queen, 
headstrong and inexperienced, was no match in 
diplomacy for Robert Cecil, fortified by the experience 
and sagacity of his father ; but he had enlisted in his 
service some of the cleverest and most unscrupulous 
spies and agents to aid him. Wherever the Queen had 
an ambassador, or the Cecils an agent, Essex also had 
a man to represent his interest. Every envoy that came 
from James Stuart or Henry IV. to ask for aid which 
the Cecils considered it imprudent to give under the 
circumstances, was received by Essex and . his friends 
with open arms ; and counter intrigues were carried 
on through them against the policy of Lord Burghley. 
In Scotland, Holland, and France, it was Essex who 
posed as the friend at the expense of the Cecils. 2 

It had been to a considerable extent owing to the 
diplomacy of Antonio Perez that Henry IV. had decided 
to come to terms with the League, in order that the 
united forces of France might be opposed to the 
Spaniards. It was now Perez's secret mission from 
the French King, with the aid of Essex, to exacerbate 
English feeling against Spain nationally, and to pledge 

1 Frobisher was mortally wounded in the assault. 

2 See the extraordinary letters of Foulis, Cockburn, and other Scottish 
agents, to Bacon, &c, in the Bacon Papers (Birch). "Mr Bowes, the 
English Ambassador here (in Scotland), is very much scandalised at the 
behaviour of Crato [i.e. Burghley) and his son towards me, and assures me 
he will remonstrate with the Queen at his return," writes Foulis to Bacon 
(Bacon Papers) ; and similar expressions in the letters of other French and 
Scotch agents show clearly that Essex took care to cultivate the idea that it was 
only the Cecils who prevented the adoption of a generous policy towards them. 



i 59 4] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 467 

Elizabeth to help him against the common enemy, 
independently of the question of religion. This would 
have been a distinct departure from the traditional 
policy of England, which had usually been to stand 
aloof whilst the two great rivals were righting ; and only 
the attachment of the King of France to the Protestant 
cause had for a time altered this policy. Elizabeth's 
interests in France, now that Henry was a Catholic, 
were limited to preventing the permanent establishment 
of the Spanish power on the north coast opposite Eng- 
land, and to that end the Cecils directed their efforts. 
This, however, did not satisfy Essex and the war-party ; 
and the persistent plots of the English Jesuits in Spain 
and Flanders x added constant fuel to the flame, which 
Perez so artfully fanned from Essex House. 2 

An opportunity occurred late in 1593 by which some 
of the instruments of the Cecils might be discredited, 
and a fresh blow dealt at the policy of cautious 
moderation. Many of the Portuguese gentlemen who 
surrounded the pretender, Don Antonio, had for years 
sold themselves both to Philip and to England — and 
played false to both. It has been seen that Lord 
Burghley's network of secret intelligence, under the 
management of Phillips, was extremely extensive ; and, 
amongst others, several of these Portuguese were em- 
ployed. 3 The most popular physician in London at 

1 See the many confessions and declarations of spies and informers (1594) 
as to alleged plots for the murder of the Queen, Burghley, &c, at this time 
(State Papers, Domestic). 

2 It was here, and at Eton College, where he was lodged when the court 
was at Windsor, that he wrote his bitter "Relaciones" against Philip. He 
alleged that men were sent to London to assassinate him, and with indefatigable 
zeal of tongue and pen kept up and increased the ill-feeling in the court 
against Spain. His copious correspondence with Henry IV. leaves no doubt 
whatever either as to the real object of his mission or the utter baseness 
with which he executed it. 

3 See Burghley's correspondence with Andrada, Da Vega, and others 
(State Papers, Domestic), and Mendoza's references to the same men in 
the Spanish State Papers. 



468 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1594 

the time was Dr. Ruy Lopez, a Portuguese Jew, the 
Queen's physician, who was frequently employed by 
Burghley as an intermediary with the spies, in order 
to avert suspicion from them. On several occasions 
suggestions had been made to Philip by these spies of 
plans to kill the pretender, and Lopez's name had been 
mentioned to the Spanish Government as one who 
would be willing to undertake the task of poisoning him. 
In 1590 one Andrada had been discovered in an act 
of treachery against Don Antonio, and arrested in 
England, and a letter of his to Mendoza had been inter- 
cepted, in which he said that he had won over Lopez 
to the cause of Spain. In another letter, not intercepted, 
he gave particulars of a proposal of Lopez to bring 
about peace between England and Spain, if a sum of 
money was paid to him. Through the influence of 
Lopez, however, Andrada was liberated, and sent abroad 
as a spy in the interests of England. Thenceforward for 
three years secret correspondence was known, by Lord 
Burghley, to be passing between Spanish agents in Flan- 
ders and Spain, and Dr. Lopez, through Andrada and 
others. The intermediaries were all double spies and 
scoundrels who would have stuck at nothing, and were 
so regarded by Lord Burghley ; but Lopez was thought 
to be above suspicion, and to be acting solely in English 
interests. He had, however, made an enemy of Essex ; 
and Perez artfully wheedled some admissions from him 
that he was in communication with Spanish agents about 
some great plan. In October 1593, Gama, one of the 
agents, was, at Essex's suggestion, arrested in Lopez's 
house and searched. The letters found upon him were 
enigmatical, but suspicious. Then another agent named 
Tinoco, with similar communications and bills of ex- 
change in his pocket from Spanish ministers, was laid 
by the heels. Essex, prompted by Perez, was indefati- 



1594] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 469 

gable in the examination of the men. They lied and pre- 
varicated — for it is certain that they were paid by both 
sides ; but one of them mentioned Dr. Lopez as being 
interested in some compromising papers found upon 
him, and suddenly on the 30th January the Queen's 
physician was arrested. He was immediately carried 
to Cecil House in the Strand, and there examined by 
the Lord Treasurer, Sir Robert Cecil, and Essex. 1 

His answers seemed satisfactory to the Cecils, whose 
agent Lopez was, but did not please Essex. The Earl, 
however, was forestalled by Robert Cecil, who posted 
off to Hampton Court and assured Elizabeth of the 
physician's innocence. Whilst he was assuring her 
that the only ground for the accusation — which 
had now assumed the form of a plot to murder the 

1 On the way from this examination Sir Robert Cecil and Essex rode together 
in a coach. The former — surely to annoy Essex — reverted to a subject which 
had caused intense acrimony between the Earl and the Cecils for months past, 
namely, the appointment to the vacant Attorney-Generalship which Essex was 
violently urging for Francis Bacon ; an appointment to which neither the 
Queen nor Lord Burghley would consent, although the latter was willing for 
him to have the Solicitor-Generalship. The abuse and insult heaped upon 
the Cecils behind their backs on this account by the Earl, by the scoundrel 
Standen, and by the Bacons themselves, may be seen in the Bacon Papers 
(Birch). On this occasion the violent rashness and want of tact on the part 
of Essex is very clear. Cecil asked him, as if the subject was new, who he 
thought would be the best man for the Attorney-Generalship. The Earl was 
astonished, and replied that he knew very well, as he, Cecil, was the principal 
reason why Bacon had not already been appointed. Cecil then expressed his 
surprise that Essex should waste his influence in seeking the appointment of a 
raw youth. Essex flew in a rage, and told Cecil that he was younger than 
Francis, and yet he aspired to a much higher post than the Attorney-Generalship, 
i.e. the Secretaryship of State, and then, quite losing control of himself, 
swore that he would have the appointment for Francis, and would "spend 
all my power, might, authority, and amity, and with tooth and nail procure 
the same against whomsoever." The hot-headed Earl foolishly ended by an 
undisguised threat against Cecil and his father (Bacon Papers), which we 
may be sure the former, at least, did not forget, although Essex had quite 
changed his tone and wrote quite humbly to Cecil on the matter in the 
following May (Hatfield Papers). It is hardly necessary to say that Bacon 
was disappointed of the Attorney-Generalship. 



470 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1594 

Queen — arose from the Earl's hatred of Lopez, Essex 
was endeavouring to strengthen the proofs against 
the accused. When the Earl appeared at court the 
Queen burst out in a fury against him, called him a 
rash and temerarious youth to bring this ruinous accusa- 
tion of high treason against her trusty servant from 
sheer malice, and told him that she knew Lopez was 
innocent, and her honour was at stake in seeing justice 
done. Gradually, however, the nets closed around the 
doctor. The Cecils did as much as they dared in his 
favour, but the presumptive evidence against him was 
too strong. The underlings competed with each other 
in the fulness of their confessions against Lopez, in 
hope of favour for themselves ; and at length some 
sort of confession was said to have been wrung from 
Lopez himself, 1 Robert Cecil, with horror, was forced 
to admit his belief that he was guilty, 2 and Lopez and 
his fellow-criminals were executed at Tyburn early in 
June. 3 This, together with the simultaneous declara- 
tion of other Spanish Jesuit plots against the Queen, 
and the activity of Perez's venomous pen, aroused a 
feeling of perfect fury against Philip and his country. 

All eyes looked to Drake and the sailors again to 
punish Spain upon the sea. Talk of great expeditions 
to America, to the Azores, to Spain itself, ran from 
mouth to mouth. What had been done with impunity 

1 See the extensive correspondence and proceedings in the case (State 
Papers, Domestic, and Hatfield Papers). 

2 Cecil to Windebanke (State Papers, Domestic). 

8 Great obscurity still surrounds the case. Apart from his own alleged 
confession, Lopez's condemnation depended upon the declarations of the 
double spies who were his accomplices, and he solemnly asserted his inno- 
cence on the scaffold. I have carefully examined all the evidence — much of it 
hitherto unknown — and although there is no space to enter into the matter 
here, I am personally convinced that the service that Lopez was to render 
was to poison Don Antonio — not the Queen — and bring about some sort of 
modus vlvendi between England and Spain. 



i 5 94] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 471 

before, might, said the Englishmen, be done again, 
even though the King of France had become a Papist 
and was unworthy of English help. But the Queen 
was in one of her timid moods, and the Cecils held the 
reins tightly. Essex remained sulking or in disgrace 
for the greater part of the summer, and, we learn from 
a letter from Sir Thomas Cecil to his brother, only 
became ostensibly reconciled with the Lord Treasurer 
in August. 

Little of the routine business passed through Lord 
Burghley's hands now, thanks to the activity of his son, 
but we get a glance occasionally at the aged minister 
from friends and foes who visited him. In the latter 
category we may place the spy Standen, a place-hunter 
and double traitor, who had fastened himself upon 
Essex, and yet was for ever pestering Burghley for an 
appointment. Sometimes the Lord Treasurer pretended 
to forget who he was, sometimes he gravely and politely 
expressed his regret at his inability to help him ; but 
on one occasion, at least, he let him know that as he 
had joined Essex he must expect nothing from him. 
Standen was hanging about Hampton Court in the 
spring, and when the Queen had left, thinking the Lord 
Treasurer would be less busy than usual, " he stepped 
into his Lordship's bedchamber, and found him alone 
sitting by the fire." After some compliments, the place- 
hunter, for the hundredth time, set forth his claims. 
Burghley replied as before, that Standen was in Eng- 
land for a long time after his return from abroad with- 
out even coming to salute him. Standen said he had 
been ill with' ague ; " but," said the minister, " you have 
been about the court all the winter and must have had 
some good days. And," he asked, " how is it I have not 
seen the statement the Queen told you to draw up 
about Spain and to hand to me ?" Standen hemmed 



472 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1594 

and ha'd, but at last had to confess that he had given 
the statement to Essex for the Queen six months before. 
" Then my Lord began to start in his chair, and to alter 
his voice and countenance from a kind of crossing and 
wayward manner which he hath, into a tune of choler," x 
and told the spy that since he had begun with the Earl 
of Essex he had better go on with him, and hoped him 
well of it. Then angrily telling him some home-truths 
about his conduct, the Lord Treasurer dismissed the 
spy ; though for the rest of the great minister's life 
he was not free from his importunities. 

It was not often that Lord Burghley thus exhibited 
anger, even to a man like Standen. We seem to know 
the aged statesman better in the following pathetic 
little word-picture contained in a letter from his faith- 
ful secretary, Sir Michael Hicks, to Sir Robert Cecil 2 
(27th September) : " My Lord called me to him this 
evening, and willed me to write to you in mine own 
name, to signify to you that the Judge of the Admiralty 
came hither to him a little before supper time, to let 
him understand that he was not furnished with sufficient 
matter to meet the French Ambassador, and required 
five or six days' further respite . . . wherewith he 
(Burghley) was well contented ... for at the time of 
his coming to him he found himself ill, and not fit to 
hear and deal in suits, and he doth so continue. And 
truly, methinks, he is nothing sprighted, but lying on 
his couch he museth or slumbereth. And being a little 
before supper at the fire, I offered him some letters 
and other papers, but he was soon weary of them, and 
told me he was unfit to hear suits. But I hope a good 
night's rest will make him better to-morrow." 3 

But though the great statesman was nearing his end, 

1 Bacon Papers, Birch. 2 Ibid. 

3 Hatfield Papers, part iv. 






i 5 94] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 473 

his mind was as keen as ever, and his influence was 
strong enough to prevent Essex from dragging England 
into an offensive war with Spain for the benefit of Henry 
IV. The Bearnais had still to cope with rebellion in 
various parts of his realm, and the Spaniards had secured 
a firm footing in Picardy and Brittany ; his finances 
were in the utmost disorder, and against the advice of 
Sully he declared a national war against Philip in 
January. He had clamoured and cajoled in vain for 
more aid from Elizabeth, and in his pressing need had 
appealed with more success to the Hollanders. 

This was the last straw. All the old distrust of the 
Burghley school against the French revived. The Queen 
was furious that these ingrate Dutchmen, whom she 
alone had rescued from the Spanish tyranny, should 
now curry favour with France. They owed her vast 
sums of money and eternal gratitude, they had offered 
her the sovereignty of their States, and yet instead of 
paying their debts and releasing some of her forces 
occupied in their service, they must needs seek fresh 
friends. If possible she was more indignant still with 
Henry ; for, as we have seen, one of the two pivots upon 
which English policy turned was to exclude French 
influence in the Low Countries. Thomas Bodley was 
sent back to the States with reproaches for their in- 
gratitude, and a peremptory demand that they should 
pay her what they owed her. Before he left England, 
however, he also was gained by Essex, and notwith- 
standing Burghley's and the Queen's strict instructions, 
was far more careful to provide excuses for the States 
than to press them. 1 Henry IV., too, never ceased to 

1 Correspondence with Burghley, in the Hatfield Papers, part v., and State 
Papers, Flanders (Record Office) ; and with Essex, in Bacon Papers (Birch). 
Burghley, apparently to occupy his mind during his illness, wrote a most 
elaborate minute, "to be shown to her Majesty when she is disposed to be 



474 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1594 

declare that unless much more English help was sent 
to him, the north of France would slip from his grasp 
whilst he was busy in the south ; and in the autumn, 
point was given to his warning by the treacherous sur- 
sender of Cambray to the Spaniards. This was a direct 
danger to England, and Henry made the most of it by 
sending a special envoy to demand fresh English aid. 
But still Burghley was against violent measures, for a 
great Spanish fleet was being fitted out in Galicia, and 
Tyrone's rebellion in Ireland was being actively pro- 
moted by Philip. Defence, as usual, was the first 
thought of the Lord Treasurer ; and disabled as he was, 
he drew up in the autumn a complete scheme for the 
protection of the country against invasion. 1 

But though Elizabeth would not commence offensive 
warfare against Spain, she was induced to listen at last 
to Drake's oft-rejected prayer for permission to raise a 
powerful privateer squadron to capture prizes and raid 
Panama. This was what people wanted. Drake's name 
had not lost its magic, and volunteers joined in thousands, 
eager for fighting and loot under the great admiral. The 
ports of Spain and Portugal were panic-stricken at the 
mere prospect of a visit, and if the fleet had sailed 
promptly in the spring, Philip might have been crippled 
again. But the Queen and Burghley were still appre- 
hensive, and loath to let Drake sail too far away. Sud- 
denly on 23rd July four Spanish pinnaces landed 600 
soldiers on the Cornish coast, and without resistance 
they ravaged and burnt the country round Penzance. 

merry, to see how I am occupied in logic and neglect physic ; " proving that 
her demands upon the States to be made by Bodley are founded upon the 
maxims of civil law. " If," he says, " my hand and arm did not pain me as 
it doth in distempering my spirits, I would send longer argument" (Hatfield 
Papers, part v.). Thanks to Burghley's persistence, terms were made with 
the States. 

1 Printed in Strype's "Annals." 



1594] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 475 

It was a mere predatory raid from the Brittany coast ; 
but it seemed to justify all Elizabeth's fears, and, to 
Drake's despair, she forbade him to go direct to Panama. 
He was, she said, to cruise about the Channel and Ireland 
for a month, then to intercept any fleet from Spain that 
might threaten, and finally to lay in wait for the Spanish 
treasure flotilla before he crossed the Atlantic. The 
orders doubtless originated from Howard, who was as 
cautious as Burghley himself ; but Drake and his officers 
flatly refused to obey them. They had, they said, on 
the Queen's commission fitted out at vast expense a 
private fleet for a certain purpose, and it was utterly 
inappropriate to the service now demanded of it. The 
Queen was angry, and, as usual, called upon Burghley 
to refute the strategical arguments of the sailors, which 
he did in a learned minute. But it was never sent, for 
Drake was obviously in the right, and the Queen was 
obliged to give way. She made Drake pledge his honour 
to be back in England again in the following May to fight 
the new Armada, and, on the 28th August, Drake and 
Hawkins sailed out of Plymouth to failure and death. 

All through the year, with but short intervals of 
comparative ease, Lord Burghley remained ill, but 
manfully determined to perform his duty. His letters 
to his son, written, of course, with greater freedom than 
to others, disclose more of his private feelings than we 
have been able to see at any earlier period of his career. 
Both in these letters and those of his secretaries the 
note touched is intense devotion to the public service 
at any cost to his own repose. Maynard writes to Sir 
Robert Cecil (23rd December 1594) that the sharp 
weather had increased the Lord Treasurer's pain. 
" But for your coming hither his Lordship says you 
shall not need, although you shall hear his amend- 
ment is grown backward." A few months later at 



476 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1595 

Theobalds, Clapham sends to Sir Robert very un- 
favourable news of the invalid, and in the following 
month of May we find him confined to his bed at 
Cecil House in London, suffering greatly, and fretting 
at his inability to go to court. In the autumn he tells 
his son that he is obliged to sign his letters with a stamp, 
" for want of a right hand " ; but even then he con- 
cludes his letter thus — "And if by your speech with 
her Majesty she "will not mislike to have so bold a 
person to lodge in her house, I will come as I am (in 
body not half a man, but in mind passable) to the 
muster of the rest of my good Lords, her Majesty's 
Councillors, my good friends. . . . Upon your answer 
I will make no unnecessary delay, by God's permission." 1 
In the midst of his pain his letters are full of directions 
upon State matters. In a letter to Cecil in October, 
urging the Queen to send prompt reinforcements to 
Ireland, which apparently she was inclined to neglect, 
he says, "My aching pains so increase that I am all 
night sleepless, though not idle in mind." 2 

1 The Queen at this time appears to have been desirous of saving Burghley 
trouble. When the court was at Nonsuch (September 1595), the Council was 
held in his room, the Queen being present. (Bacon Papers.) 

2 That he was not idle in mind even in his greatest pain is shown by the 
fact that during this autumn, whilst he was almost entirely disabled, he not 
only continued his close attendance to State affairs, but gave a great amount 
of attention to the new question which was disturbing the Church, and 
especially setting the University of Cambridge by the ears. A Mr. Barrett, of 
Gonvilleand Caius, had preached a sermon in which the doctrine of free grace 
was enunciated. This was thought by many to be " Popish," and Burghley, 
as Vice-Chancellor, ordered him to recant. The doctrine was eloquently 
defended by Burghley 's protege, Professor Baro. Curiously enough, Whitgift, 
a prelate of prelates, then came out with a series of articles (called the 
Lambeth articles) enforcing the extreme Calvinistic doctrine of absolute pre- 
destination. Burghley was passionately appealed to by both parties, and 
while supporting the authority of Whitgift, expressed his dissent from the 
doctrine of predestination. The Queen, annoyed at the question being raised, 
instructed Sir Robert Cecil to stop the dispute, which had caused much 
trouble both to her and Burghley. 



1595] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 477 

That the Lord Treasurer's bodily weakness and over- 
powering political influence were recognised elsewhere 
than in England as a powerful factor in the international 
situation, is evident from the correspondence — amongst 
many others — of the Venetian Ambassador in France. 
Henry had gone north, and was besieging La Fere, in 
Picardy, in the late autumn, after the fall of Cambray, 
and had sent his agent Lomenie to England to support 
the efforts of Essex in his favour. But the Earl was in 
semi-disgrace, and the French agent went back with 
but small promises of aid. Henry was about to send 
a stronger envoy, Sancy, but Essex told him it would 
be useless, and the clever Bearnais, knowing best how 
to arouse Elizabeth's jealousy, despatched Sancy to 
Holland. Thereupon the Venetian Ambassador writes 
to the Doge : " If Sancy went to England just now he 
would not find the Queen well disposed towards the 
policy of his Majesty (Henry IV.), not only on the 
grounds I have so often explained, but also because 
she does not approve of the conduct of the French 
ministers. The chief reason, however, is that there 
reigns a division in the councils of the Queen, and 
her two principal ministers are secretly in disaccord. 
One of these ministers, the Lord Treasurer, is very ill- 
disposed towards the crown of France, and uses all his 
influence to prevent the Queen from taking an active 
part in this direction. There is a strong suspicion that 
he has been bought by Spanish gold. The other noble- 
man, a prime favourite with the Queen, is of the contrary 
opinion, urging that every effort should be made to 
quench the fire in one's neighbour's house to prevent 
one's own from being burnt. The Queen is in the 
greatest perplexity. The Lord Treasurer, in addition 
to his other arguments, urges the plea of economy, to 
which women are naturally more inclined than men. 



478 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1595 

All the same, no efforts are being spared to dispose her 
mind, so that should Sancy go to England he may easily 
obtain all he asks for." l 

When it became evident that Henry was again ap- 
pealing to the States, Elizabeth was forced to make a 
counter-move, and decided to send Sir Henry Unton to 
offer further English help, if certain French towns, espe- 
cially Calais, were placed in her hands as security. It 
was clear that Henry neither could nor would agree to 
such terms, and probably the Queen and Burghley were 
quite aware of the fact ; but upon Unton's embassy 
Essex founded a regular conspiracy for the purpose 
of outwitting the Cecils and dragging England into war. 
Antonio Perez had already been sent back to France 
in July 1595, self-pitying and lachrymose at leaving the 
luxury of Essex House to follow a camp ; but to be 
received in France almost with royal consideration, and 
to be welcomed once more as the bosom friend of the 
King. He betrayed everybody ; but his real mission 
was to send alarming news to Essex as to Henry's 
intentions, in order that Elizabeth might be frightened 
into an alliance with him to prevent his joining her 
enemies against her. Perez thought more of his own 
discomfort than of his English patron's policy, and had 
to be brought to book more than once. The Earl sent 
Sir Roger Williams to upbraid him for not making 
matters more lively. " I am doing," says the Earl, 
" what I can to push on war in England ; but you ! 
you ! Antonio, what are you doing on that side ? " 

But when Unton went on his mission early in January 
1596, a stronger ally than Perez was gained. He was 
entirely in Essex's interests, and received secret instruc- 
tions from the Earl. 2 Perez and Unton were to work 
together, of course without the knowlege of Sir Thomas 

1 Venetian State Papers. 2 In extenso in Bacon Papers (Birch). 



1596] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 479 

Edmonds, the regular Ambassador, who was a " Cecil 
man." Henry IV. was to be prompted to feign anger and 
indignation with England, and threaten to make friends 
with Spain. " He must so use the matter as Union may 
send us thundering letters, whereby he must drive us to 
propound and to offer." Perez, too, was to keep the 
game alive by assuring Essex that a treaty was on foot 
between France and Spain, and to reproach Essex for 
allowing Unton to be sent on such an errand as would 
mortally offend the King. 

But the Cecils were too clever for Essex and Perez 
combined. One of Perez's secretaries played him false, 
for which he was afterwards imprisoned in the Clink by 
Essex ; and it is probable that the threads of the intrigue, 
all through, were in the hands of Burghley. In any 
case, there was no great change in Elizabeth's policy, 1 
and Unton himself died in France before his mission was 
complete (23rd March 1596). Only a few days after- 
wards news reached London that the Spaniards were 
marching on Calais. This, at all events, was calculated to 

1 Burghley did not prevail with the Queen at this juncture without trouble 
when Essex was near. In March 1596, Essex arrived at the court at Rich- 
mond, and Standen says : ' ' The old man upon some pet would needs away 
against her will on Thursday last, saying that her business was ended, and 
he would for ten days go take physic. When she saw it booted not to stay 
him she said he was a froward old fool" (Bacon Papers). The following 
dignified letter written soon afterwards by Burghley to his son evidently refers 
to this incident: "My loving son, Sir Robert Cecil, knt., I do hold, and 
will always, this course in such matters as I differ in opinion from her 
Majesty. As long as I may be allowed to give advice I will not change my 
opinion by affirming the contrary, for that were to offend God, to whom I 
am sworn first ; but as a servant I will obey her Majesty's command and no 
wise contrary the same ; presuming that she being God's chief minister here, 
it shall be God's will to have her commandments obeyed — after that I have 
performed my duty as a Councillor, and shall in my heart wish her command- 
ments to have such good success as she intendeth. You see I am a mixture 
of divinity and policy; preferring in policy her Majesty before all others on 
earth, and in divinity the King of Heaven above all." This letter seems to 
enshrine Burghley's lifelong rule of conduct as a minister. 



480 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1596 

arouse Elizabeth to action ; and on Easter Sunday 1596 all 
the church doors in London were suddenly closed during 
service, and there and then a number of the men-wor- 
shippers pressed for service. They were hurriedly armed 
and on the same night marched to Dover for embarka- 
tion under Essex. No sooner were the men on board and 
ready to sail than a counter order came from London. 
Essex was frantic, and wrote rash and foolish letters to the 
Queen and the Lord Admiral. He writes to Sir Robert 
Cecil on the same day : " O ! pray get the order altered. 
I have written to the Queen in a passion. Pray plead 
for me, that I may not be disgraced by any one else 
commanding the succour whilst I have done the work. 
Pray do not show the Queen my letter to the Admiral ; 
it is too passionate." 1 Almost in sight of Essex, the day 
after this was written (14th), the citadel of Calais fell 
into the hands of the Spaniards, and Elizabeth found 
she had overreached herself. 2 When Unton had asked 

1 Hatfield Papers, part v. 

2 Lord Burghley must be absolved from all blame for the hesitation to 
succour Calais. The delay and failure were entirely the fault of the Queen. 
Whilst Burghley held back and resisted attempts to drag England into war 
with Spain unnecessarily ; when English interests were really at stake, as in 
the case of Calais, he could be as active as any one. On the 6th April, as 
soon as the news arrived, his secretary wrote to Robert Cecil — the Lord 
Treasurer being "freshly pinned" with the gout and unable to write — ap- 
proving of Essex's plan to relieve Calais ; and on the ioth he writes himself, 
after the town had surrendered, but whilst the citadel held out : " I am heartily 
sorry to perceive her Majesty's resolution to stay this voyage, being so far 
forward as it is ; and surely I am of opinion that the citadel being relieved the 
town will be regained, and if for want of her Majesty's succour it shall be lost, 
by judgment of the world the blame will be imputed to her. . . . These so 
many changes breed hard opinions of counsell." Sancy and the Duke de 
Bouillon came to Elizabeth at Greenwich to remonstrate with her, in Henry's 
name, on the effect which her demand for Calais in return for her aid had pro- 
duced. Sancy had a long conversation with Burghley on the 23rd April, and 
the latter frankly told him that the conversion of Henry had entirely changed 
the situation. The only common interests now, he said, between the two 
countries was their vicinity. Sancy says the Lord Treasurer praised the 
Spaniards to the skies, to the detriment of the French. The French envoy 



1596] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 481 

for Calais as the price of her help, the Bearnais had said, 
with his usual oath, that he would see it in the hands of 
the Spaniards first ; and for once he had told the truth. 

The blow to Elizabeth's policy was undoubtedly 
a severe one, and a counter-stroke had to be delivered. 
The old project which on several occasions had been 
submitted by Howard to the Council for an attack 
upon the shipping in Cadiz harbour, was revived. 
Essex was all aflame in the business from the first ; 
but the Queen changed her mind from day to day. 
" The Queen," wrote Reynolds in May, 1 " is daily 
changing her humour about my Lord's voyage, and 
was yesterday almost resolute to stay it, using very 
hard words of my Lord's wilfulness." Lord Burghley 
appears to have been very ill at the time of the pre- 
parations ; 2 but he was sufficiently well to secure the 
appointment of the aged Lord Admiral to the joint 
command of the fleet, to the discontent, and almost 
despair, of Essex ; and to pen an order from the Queen 
strictly limiting the objects of the expedition to the 
destruction of the Spanish ships manifestly intended 
for the invasion of England. The great fleet of 96 sail, 
vith a contingent of 24 sail of Hollanders, left Plymouth 

was endeavouring to secure an offensive and defensive alliance with England, 
which Burghley steadily opposed. How could Henry help Elizabeth? the 
Treasurer asked; and what more could Elizabeth do for him than she was 
doing ? In one of their interviews Burghley flatly told Sancy that the Queen 
did not intend to strengthen Henry in order that he might make an advan- 
tageous peace over her head. Sancy was shocked at such an imputation on 
his master's honour, and gave a written pledge of Henry that he would 
never treat without England, and this was embodied in the treaty (26th May 
1596). Burghley made as good terms as he could, but he never was in 
favour of the treaty. His letter quoted above (page 479) and his quarrel with 
the Queen evidently had reference to this subject. 

1 Bacon Papers. 

2 Writing from Theobalds to Robert Cecil soon after the expedition sailed 
from Plymouth, he says, " I came here rather to satisfy my mind by change of 
place, and to be less pressed by suitors, than with any hope of ease or relief. " 

2 H 



482 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1596 

on the 5th June, and on the 20th appeared before the 
astounded eyes of the citizens of Cadiz. The divided 
command, and the small experience of actual fighting 
at sea of Howard and Essex, was nearly bringing about 
a disaster to the English ; but at a critical moment 
Ralegh's advice was taken. The fleet sailed boldly 
into the harbour, and destroyed the shipping first, and 
then captured and sacked the city. 

It was the greatest blow that had ever been dealt to 
the power of Spain ; and it proved that Philip's system 
was rotten, and that the Spanish pretensions were 
incapable of being sustained by force of arms. When 
Essex came back he found that Sir Robert Cecil had 
been appointed Secretary of State (July) in his absence. 1 
The Queen was fractious, and offended that her orders 
had been exceeded, and above all, that she had not 
received so much booty as she expected ; and for a time 
Essex was kept at arm's length. But now that Cecil 
had obtained the coveted post of Secretary, he wisely 
endeavoured to make friends with Essex, who had so 
bitterly opposed him ; 2 and, greatly to the Queen's 
delight, a new appearance of cordiality between them 
was the result. Sir Robert even brought Ralegh into 
the circle of grace. He had been for five years under 

1 Essex had lately, and most in temperately, been trying to force Bodley 
into the Secertaryship. His importunity was so great as to offend the Queen, 
and predisposed her against his proteges. How jealous Antony Bacon was 
may be seen in his letter. " Elphas peperit ; so that now the old man may 
say, with the rich man in the gospel, * requiescat anima mea.'' " Bacon Papers. 

2 That the reconciliation was not easy will be seen in Essex's letters in 
the Bacon Papers. The Earl writes in September to Lady Russell, "Yester- 
day the Lord Treasurer and Sir Robert Cecil did, before the Queen, contest 
with me, . . . and this day I was more braved by your little cousin (Cecil) 
than ever I was by any man in my life. But I was, and am, not angry, 
which is all the advantage I have of him." In the following April Essex 
entertained Cecil and Ralegh at dinner, "and a treaty of peace was con- 
firmed." During the Earl's disgrace with the Queen shortly afterwards, Cecil 
appears to have behaved in a friendly manner towards him. 



i 5 97] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 483 

the Queen's frown, but Cadiz had made him friendly 
with Essex, and now Cecil and Essex together brought 
about a reconciliation with the Queen. On the 2nd 
June 1597 Ralegh once more knelt before his royal 
mistress, and donned his long-neglected silver armour 
as captain of the guard. 

The sacking of Cadiz had irretrievably ruined Philip's 
prestige ; but it had not deprived him of all material 
resources, heavy and ceaseless as had been the drain 
upon his treasury for the war in France. The Irish 
chiefs left him no peace from their importunities, and 
assured him again and again that with the aid of a few 
men the island might be his, and Elizabeth and the 
heretics at his mercy. Promises, sums of money, and 
slight succour were sent from time to time ; but the 
insult of Cadiz and the exhortations of the Church, at 
length prevailed upon the King to attempt one great 
effort in Ireland to crush his enemy before swift 
approaching death struck him down. We understand 
now that such a system as his foredoomed to failure 
any attempt to organise promptly an efficient naval 
armament ; for penury, peculation, delay, and ineptitude 
were the natural result of the minutest details being 
jealously retained in the hands of an overworked hermit 
hundreds of miles away from the centre of activity. 
But in England the news of his intentions caused far 
greater apprehension than we now know that they de- 
served ; and Essex was again all eagerness to take out 
another fleet, and repeat elsewhere the coup of Cadiz. 

This time he found no obstacles raised by the Cecils. 
In a biography of Lord Burghley, it is not necessary to 
probe the vexed question of the sincerity of Sir Robert 
Cecil's reconciliation with Essex. Most inquirers of 
late years have assumed, with some show of justification, 
that it was from the first a deep-laid plot of Cecil, perhaps 



484 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1597 

with Ralegh's co-operation, to ruin the Earl, as in its 
results it certainly did. But without admitting this, or at 
least implicating Burghley himself in such a plan, 1 it may 
fairly be assumed that when Cecil saw how smoothly 
things went for him, and how soon he obtained the 
Secretaryship when Essex was absent, he may have 
welcomed any opportunity of again getting rid of so 
turbulent and quarrelsome a colleague. 2 The earl's pride 
and jealousy had also taken from him much of the 
Queen's regard, and she was determined to humble or 
to break him. The first project had been to raise a small 
expedition under Ralegh and Lord Thomas Howard to 
intercept the Spanish treasure fleets ; but when it became 
known that the Adelantado of Castile was making ready 
a fleet of 100 ships and a powerful army in the Galician 
ports, Essex proposed a great enlargement of the plan. 
He was authorised to raise a force of 120 ships, the 
Dutchmen were induced to send a strong contingent, 
and with infinite labour Essex and Ralegh induced the 
Queen to consent to their plan for burning the Spanish 
fleet, in port or wherever they could find it, and then 
to intercept and capture the homeward-bound flotillas 
from the East and West Indies. 

Lord Burghley's attitude is seen by a cordial letter 
he wrote to Essex early in May (State Papers, Domestic). 
"I thank you," he says, "for not reproving my objec- 

1 It is curious that in the previous year, when Essex was going on the 
Cadiz expedition, Bellievre, the French minister, expressed an opinion that 
"his appointment is a suggestion of the Lord Treasurer, in order to divert 
the Queen from sending aid to his Majesty (Henry IV.), and to get rid of 
the Earl of Essex on the pretext of this honourable appointment, which would 
leave him (Burghley) master of the Council." It is fair to say that the Venetian 
ambassador who transmits this opinion, expresses his disbelief in it. Venetian 
State Papers. 

2 That the sagacious Bacon saw and foretold the consequences of Essex's 
willingness to absent himself in risky enterprises, is evident from his letters 
to the Earl in October 1596 (Bacon's Works, ed. Montagu, vol. 9). 



i 5 97] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 485 

tions for the resolutions for conference. I hope to see 
you at Court to-morrow, if God by over-great pains do 
not countermand me. / like so well to attempt something 
against our Spanish enemy that I hope God will prosper the 
purpose." 

The fleets gathered in Plymouth Sound early in July, 
and sailed in three fine squadrons under Essex, Thomas 
Howard, and Ralegh respectively. 1 On the day he 
sailed unsuspecting Essex in the fulness of his heart 
wrote a fervent letter of thanks to Cecil. 2 He would, 
he said, never forget his kindness whilst he lived ; " and 
if I live to return, I will make you think your friend- 
ship well professed." Unfortunately he returned sooner 
than he expected, for the fleets were caught in a storm 
and driven back with much suffering and danger. 
Famine and sickness broke out, and for a whole month 
the fleets were wind-bound in the Channel, whilst the 
Queen began to waver about allowing her ships and 
men to be exposed again so late in the season. Once 
more the aged Lord Treasurer wrote to Essex on his 
return (July 23), " It is not right that I should condole 
with you for your late torment at sea, for I am sure 
that would but increase your sorrow, and be no relief 
to me. I am but as a monoculus, by reason of a flux 
falling into my left eye ; and you see the impediment 
by my evil writing and short letter. ... In the time 
of this disaster I did by common usage of my morning 
prayer on the 23rd of every month, in the 107th Psalm, 
read these nine verses proper for you to repeat, and 
especially six of them, which I send to you. This 
letter savours more of divinity. As for humanity, I 

1 There were about 120 ships, English and Dutch, and a force of some 
6000 men, including 1000 English veterans from the Low Countries, led by the 
gallant Sir Francis Vere. 

2 State Papers, Domestic. 



486 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1597 

refer you to the joint-letter from the Lord Admiral, 
myself, and my son." * 

Essex and Ralegh posted to London early in August 
and prayed the Queen to let them resume their voyage. 
"Only," said Essex, "allow me to take half the ships 
and to do as I please where I like, and I will perform a 
worthy service/ But the Queen would not hear of such 
a thing, nor should they with her permission enter any 
Spanish port at all. At last, as a compromise, she con- 
sented to Ralegh's sending a few fire-ships into Ferrol, 
on condition that Essex was to keep quite away from 
the enterprise ; and to be sure she should be obeyed, 
she insisted upon the soldiers being left at home. At 
length, on the 17th August, the truncated expedition 
again sailed. Disaster, jealousy and division dogged it 
from the first. Another great storm drove the squadrons 
asunder. The winds prevented them from approaching 
Ferrol. Ralegh, under a misunderstanding, attacked 
Fayal, in the Azores, in the absence of Essex, and the 
sycophants around the Earl bred evil blood between 
them. The main body of the flotillas from the Indies 
escaped them ; and eventually Essex, with his ships 
battered and disabled, crept into Plymouth at the end 
of October, bringing with them hardly sufficient plunder 
to pay their expenses. Fortunately in their absence the 
Spanish fleet for the invasion of Ireland had also been 
driven back and practically destroyed by a storm, and 
all present danger from that quarter had disappeared. 

Essex found that in his absence the Lord Admiral 
had been made Earl of Nottingham, which, in conjunc- 
tion with his office, gave him precedence, and that Secre- 
tary Cecil had been made Chancellor of the Duchy of 
Lancaster. The Earl was furious, and sulked at Wanstead 
instead of going to court ; but the old Lord Treasurer 

1 State Papers, Domestic. 



iS97] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 487 

was once more amiability itself — as well he might be, for 
his son was winning all along the line. On the 9th 
November he wrote to the Earl, " My writing manifests 
my sickness. Some of your friends say that the cause of 
your absence is sickness, so I send my servant to ascer- 
tain your health. I wish I could remedy any other cause 
of your absence ; but writing will do no good. It requires 
another manner of remedy, in which you may command 
my service." * And again, ten days later, " I hoped you 
would have come to court for the fortieth anniversary of 
her Majesty's coronation. I hear, to my sorrow, that 
you have been really sick, but hope you will soon be 
back at court, where you shall find a harvest of business, 
needful for many heads, wits, and hands." 2 

Although the young Earl obstinately absented himself 
from court, he seems to have sent a letter of thanks and 
friendship to Lord Burghley ; for the latter on the 30th 
November writes expressing his joy at the Earl's content- 
ment, but chiding him for his continued absence, which 
he says is exposing him to " diversity of censures." " I 
find," he says, " her Majesty sharp to such as advise her 
to that which it were meet for her to do, and for you to 
receive. My good Lord, overcome her with yielding 
without disparagement of your honour, and plead your 
own cause with your presence ; whereto I will be as ser- 
viceable as any friend you have, to my power — which is 
not to run, for lack of good feet, nor to fight, for lack of 
good hands, but ready with my heart to command my 
tongue to do you due honour." 3 At length, probably at 
the suggestion of Burghley, the angry Queen made Essex 
Earl-Marshal, which gave him precedence over Howard, 
and he came back to court sulky and quarrelsome, galled 
that cooler heads and keener wits than his could work 
their will in spite of him. 

1 State Papers, Domestic. - Ibid. 3 Ibid. 



488 THE GREAT, LORD BURGHLEY [1597 

In the meanwhile the war between France and Spain 
was wearing itself out. Since the conversion of Henry IV. 
matters were gradually working back into their natural 
groove of nationalities instead of faiths. Philip was bank- 
rupt in purse, broken in spirit, and already on the brink 
of the grave ; but the awful sacrifices his ruined country 
had made had at least prevented France from becoming 
a Protestant country. He was leaving Flanders to his 
beloved daughter Isabel, and wished to bequeath to her 
peace as well. By Henry's treaty with England and the 
United Provinces two years before he had bound himself 
to make common cause with them against the King of 
Spain ; but the main cause of his own quarrel with Spain 
had nearly disappeared, for the Leaguers were now 
mostly on his side, and for a year past the Pope (Clement 
VIII.) had been busy trying to bring about a reconcilia- 
tion between the two great Catholic powers. The pontiff 
assured Henry that he was not bound to keep faith with 
heretics, and might break the treaty with Elizabeth and 
Holland. " I have," replied the Bearnais, " pledged my 
faith to the Queen of England and the United Provinces. 
How could I treat to their detriment, or even fail in a 
single point, without betraying my duty, my honour, and 
my own interests ? No pretext would excuse such base- 
ness and perfidy, and if it could, sooner than avail myself 
of it I would lose my life." 

But when, in the autumn of 1597, the Spaniards 
were finally routed at Amiens, it was evident that Spain 
could fight no longer, and that the moment for peace 
had come. The Archduke, who was to marry the 
new sovereign of Flanders, was especially anxious for 
peace before the Spanish King died, and at his instance 
advances to Henry were made. This was the last great 
international question in which Burghley was personally 
interested, and by a curious coincidence it brought once 



1597] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 489 

more to the front the traditional English policy, of which 
he was the representative ; a policy which had for many 
years past been broken and interrupted by the religious 
position on the Continent. The growing power and 
ambition of the Dutch United Provinces, and their aid 
sent to Henry IV. against Spain, together with Henry's 
conversion to Catholicism, had once more aroused the 
fear of England that by an arrangement between them 
the French might dominate Spanish Flanders. The pro- 
ject of making the Infanta and her husband practically 
independent sovereigns of the Belgic provinces was there- 
fore eminently favourable to English interests, and drew 
England once more irresistibly to the side of Spain, as 
against the Dutchmen and Henry IV. ; for the possession 
of Flanders by the French (or now even by the strong 
pushing young Republic under French influence) was 
one of the two eventualities against which for centuries 
the traditional policy of England had been directed. 
Coincident, therefore, with Henry's negotiations, secret 
approaches were made by England to the Archduke, and 
once more, after a half-century of fighting, England was 
smiling as of old on a " Duke of Burgundy," as against a 
French King. 1 

In November Henry sent envoys to the States and to 
England to demand further aid, but with the alternative 
of a peace conference. The Dutchmen thought they had 
been betrayed, and indignantly said so ; refusing abso- 
lutely to make peace with ruined, defeated Spain, except 
on their own terms, and in their own time. Elizabeth had 
far greater reason than they for indignation with her ally, 
and had to be approached more gently and with greater 
diplomacy. De Maisse, Henry's envoy, arrived in Lon- 

1 De Maisse, the French peace envoy to England, wrote, "These people 
are still dwelling on their imagination of the house of Burgundy, . . . but it 
does not please them to have so powerful a neighbour as the King of Spain." 



490 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1597 

don on the 2nd, and was received by the Queen on the 
8th December. He found the Cecils absolute masters 
of the Council ; for all of Burghley's predictions of the 
falsity of Frenchmen had come true, and his objection 
to the treaty of alliance (May 1596) had been more than 
justified. Essex, only just returned to court from his 
sulky fit at Wanstead, took in earnest Henry's demands 
for reinforcements against Spain, and was all for fight- 
ing again, whilst Burghley of course understood them 
to be only a mask for the peace suggestion. The Queen 
and Burghley were determined to assume indignation and 
grievance in order that, in the coming peace, they might 
get the best possible terms for England ; indignant, how- 
ever, as they might pretend to be, there was nothing they 
desired more than a pacification that should open all 
ports to English trade and leave Flanders in the hands of 
a modest, moderate sovereign under the guarantee of 
Spain. But withal it behoved them to walk warily, for 
Spain had outwitted them in the peace negotiations of 
1588, and Protestant Holland could not be abandoned. 

On the 8th December De Maisse was received in 
State by Elizabeth at Whitehall, 1 whither Lord Burghley 
was brought in a litter, but Essex was still absent. The 
Queen was enigmatical but polite, and referred the envoy 
to Lord Burghley, with whom he conferred on the 10th, 
when it became evident that the object of the English 
was to gain time whilst other negotiations were proceed- 
ing. The Queen exerted all her wiles and ancient coquetry 
on De Maisse to delay matters, and not without success ; 
whilst she inflamed Caron, the envoy of the Dutch 
States, with hints of Henry's desertion and perfidy, in 
order to embitter French relations with them. 

1 Full particulars of his embassy will be found in his Journal, in the 
Archives de la Ministere des affaires etrangeres, Paris, partly reproduced in 
Prevost Paradol's " Elizabeth et Henry IV." 



1598] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 491 

At length Henry IV. got tired of this buckler play, 
and De Maisse plainly told Elizabeth that the King con- 
sidered that her delay in giving him a definite answer 
released him from his pledges under the treaty of 
alliance. Again he was referred to Burghley, whom he 
saw again early in January. The Queen could not treat 
with the Archduke, said the Treasurer. If her envoys 
were to attend a peace conference, it could only be 
with the representatives of the King of Spain ; besides, 
he said, the Queen must settle with States before she 
entered into any negotiations at all. It was well known 
to Henry and his minister at this time that brisk secret 
negotiations were being conducted between Elizabeth 
and the Archduke ; and in a final interview with Burgh- 
ley on 10th January, De Maisse gave him an ultimatum. 
His master must make peace or be supported in war. 
Essex was present at the interview ; and although the 
Lord Treasurer invited him to speak he remained ob- 
stinately silent, except to say that he did not see how 
religious dissensions would allow of peace being made 
with Spain. 

At length Burghley announced that the Queen would 
send an embassy to France to settle with Henry the 
whole question of peace or war, in conjunction with 
an embassy from the States. The embassy consisted 
of Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Thomas Wilkes, and Dr. Her- 
bert ; and the instructions taken by them are con- 
tained in the last of the important State papers written 
by the failing hand of the great statesman. The docu- 
ment is a long and sagacious one, laying down as an 
absolute condition of any peace with Spain that the 
United Provinces should be secured from all fear of 
future attempts to subdue them. An earnest desire for 
peace breathes all through the document, but it must 
be a real peace, which acknowledged accomplished facts, 



492 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1598 

abandoned inflated claims, and recognised the rights 
of Protestantism to equal treatment. 

Cecil and his companions embarked from Dover on 
the 17th February, and on the death of Wilkes in Rouen, 
the whole burden of the embassy fell upon the Secretary. 
It was not until they reached Angers on the 21st that 
Cecil saw the King. In effect the Bearnais had already 
made peace secretly with the Archduke ; the States were 
determined that they would give up no tittle of their 
hard-won independence, and haughtily refused even a 
truce if their rights were not recognised. England dared 
not abandon them, so that Cecil on his interview with 
Henry could only reproach him for his desertion of 
the ally to whom he owed so much. Henry replied 
that his position was such that he could not do other- 
wise. " I am," he said, " like a man clothed in velvet 
that hath no meat to put in his mouth." 1 

On the 28th March Cecil received a letter from his 
father dated the 1st, which caused him deep alarm. 
" The bearer," it said, " will report to you my great 
weakness. But do not take any conceit thereby to 
hinder your service ; but I must send you a message 
delivered to me in writing by Mr. Windebanke. I make 
no comment, not knowing out of what shop the text 
is come, but in my opinion non sunt ponendi rumores 
ante salutem. God bless you in earth and me in heaven, 
the place of my present pilgrimage. 2 Cecil unwillingly 
followed Henry to Nantes on his hollow errand ; but 
this letter disturbed him, and at the earliest moment 
he took leave of France and returned, although on 
the way somewhat better news reached him. " Mr. 
Secretary returned the 1st of the month" (May), says 

1 For Cecil's account of his embassy see Bacon Papers, Birch. There 
are also a great number of papers and letters on the subject of the mission 
in Cotton Vesp., cviii., and B.M. MSS. Add. 25,416. 

2 State Papers, Domestic. 



1598] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 493 

Chamberlain, " somewhat crazed with his posting jour- 
ney, the report of his father's dangerous state gave him 
wings ; but for aught I can learn the old man's case 
is not so desperate but he may hold out another year 
well enough." x 

Before Cecil had left on his mission, greatly against 
his inclination, he had received a promise from Essex 
that during his absence he would not cause any altera- 
tion to be made either in policy or court affairs. The 
Earl had been as good as his word, and for a few days 
after Cecil's return they were friendly ; but when the 
Peace of Vervins was actually signed between Henry 
and Philip the old feud between the policies of peace 
and war broke out again. This was one of those 
junctures when France and Spain being friendly, it 
had always been the Burghley policy to draw closer 
to the latter power, whilst at the same time fortifying 
those who were opposing her ; and this was the course 
adopted by the Cecils on the present occasion. Francis 
Vere was sent to Holland with promises and encourage- 
ment for the States to stand firm ; whilst the Archduke 
in Flanders was secretly informed that the Queen desired 
peace, and would enter into negotiations if she were 
assured that her desires were reciprocated. This policy 
soon alienated Essex and the war-party, and after one 
stormy interview on the subject with the dying Lord 
Treasurer, the latter handed to the Earl a book of Psalms 
and silently pointed with his finger to the line, " Blood- 
thirsty men shall not live out half their days;" a last pro- 
phecy which the Earl's pride and folly hastened to fulfil. 2 

1 Chamberlain Letters, Camden Society. 

2 The Venetian Ambassador in France writes at this time (24th July) : 
' ' The States are sending three representatives to England to urge the Queen 
to continue the war, as in her councils there are not wanting those who 
recommend this course, chiefly the Earl of Essex ; but the Lord Treasurer is 
opposed, and, more important still, the Queen herself is inclined to peace." 



494 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1598 

All the summer the aged minister lingered sick unto 
death in his palace in the Strand, sometimes taking the 
air in a coach or litter, and on two occasions going as 
far as Theobalds. During the time his great yearning 
was to bring about a peace before he died between his 
mistress and the old enemy, who, in the bitterness of 
defeat, was dying too in the frowning mountains of the 
Guadarrama far away. For forty years these two men 
had striven as none ever strove before to maintain peace 
between England and Spain ; and their efforts had been 
unavailing, for religious differences had for a time obli- 
terated national lines of policy. But Burghley had had 
the supreme wisdom of bending before superior force 
and adapting his varying means to his unvarying objects. 
England thus had gained, whilst Philip, buoyed up with 
the fatuous belief in his divine power and inspiration, 
scorning to give way to considerations of expediency, 
had been ruined by war and had failed in most of his 
aims. And yet through the welter of wrong and slaughter, 
Providence had decreed that the objects that both men 
aimed at should not be utterly defeated. The alliance 
between the countries was needed both by Spain and 
England in order that Flanders should not fall into the 
hands of the French, and this at least had been attained. 
By England it was required to counterbalance a possible 
French domination of Scotland, and this had ceased to 
be a danger. On the side of Philip had been gained the 
point that France was still a Catholic country ; whilst to 
England it was to be credited that Protestantism was 
now a great force which demanded equality with the older 
form of belief, and, above all, that England was no 
longer in the leading strings of France or Spain, but had, 
in the forty years of dexterous balance under Elizabeth 
and Burghley, attained full maturity and independence, 
with the consciousness of coming imperial greatness. 



1598] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 495 

To say that this was all owing to the management of 
the Queen and her minister would be untrue. Circum- 
stances and the faults and shortcomings of their rivals — 
nay, their own shortcomings and weaknesses as well — 
aided them powerfully to attain the brilliant success that 
attended them ; but it may safely be asserted that without 
a man of Burghley's peculiar gifts at her side Elizabeth 
would at an early period of her reign have lost the nice 
balance upon which her safety alone depended. 

It was curious that the last hours of Burghley should 
have been occupied in striving still to bring about peace 
with Spain, which had been his object through life, 
though he had attained for England already most of 
the political advantages which a peace with Spain might 
bring; but old prejudices against France were still as 
strong as they had been in his youth, for, as he had 
truly foretold, the Bearnais had played them false, and 
thenceforward no Frenchman should ever be trusted 
again. Spain, in any case, would keep the false French- 
men out of Flanders ; so Spain was England's friend. 

For twelve days the Lord Treasurer lay in his bed at 
Cecil House before he died, suffering but slightly, and 
resigned, almost eager for his coming release. On the 
evening of the 3rd August he fell into convulsions, and 
when the fit had passed, "Now," quoth he, "the Lord 
be praised, the time is come ; " and calling his children, 
he blessed them and took his leave, commanding them 
" to love and fear God, and love one another." 1 Then 
he prayed for the Queen, handed his will to his steward 
Bellot, turned his face to the wall, and died in the early 
hours of the next morning; decorous, self-controlled, and 
dignified to the last. 

His death, though long expected, was a blow which 
the aged Queen felt for the rest of her life. She wept, 

1 Desiderata Ctitiosa. 



496 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1598 

and withdrew herself from all company, we are told, 
when she was informed of her loss ; 1 and two years after- 
wards Robert Sidney, writing to Sir John Harrington, 
says, " I do see the Queen often ; she doth wax weak 
since last troubles, and Burghley's death doth often draw 
tears from her goodly cheeks." 

Even Essex, who had wrought so much against him, 
felt the loss the country had sustained. At the splendid 
funeral in Westminster Abbey 2 on the 29th August, we 
are told by an eye-witness that "my Lord of Essex to 
my judgment did more than ceremoniously show sor- 
row"; 3 and Chamberlain, writing on the next day, says, 
" The Lord Treasurer's funeral was performed yesterday 
with all the rites that belonged to so great a personage. 
The number of mourners were above 500, whereof there 
were many noblemen, and among the rest the Earl of 
Essex, who (whether it were upon consideration of the 
present occasion or for his own disfavours), methought, 
carried the heaviest countenance of the company." 4 

Throughout Europe the death of the Lord Treasurer 
was looked upon as a loss to the cause of peace. Essex, 
it was thought, would now hold sway and launch 
England upon a policy of warlike adventure. But 
Essex was himself hurrying to his doom ; and Robert 
Cecil held firmly in his hand the strings of his great father's 

1 A superficial observer, Dudley Carlton, writes a few days after Burghley's 
death : " There is so much business to be thought of on the Lord Treasurer's 
death. The Queen was so prepared for it by the small hopes of recovery that 
she takes it not over heavily, and gives ears to her suitors. The great places 
are in a manner passed before his death." (State Papers, Dom.) 

2 The full arrangements for the funeral will be found in the State Papers, 
Domestic, of the 29th August (Record Office). After the funeral at West- 
minster, the body was carried with great state to Stamford and buried at St. 
Martin's Church, in accordance with the will. Dr. Nares appears to be in 
doubt as to whether the interment was at Westminster or Stamford, but the 
State Papers seem to admit of no question on the point. 

3 Lytton to Carlton (State Papers, Domestic). 

4 Chamberlain Letters, 



1598] THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY 4 97 

policy — a policy which was on the death of the Queen 
to bring a Scottish king to the English throne, and 
unite England and Spain again in a friendly alliance. 
The baseness and trickery that accompanied the reunion 
of the countries belong to the history of the reign of 
James, and formed no part of the plan of Lord Burghley 
or his mistress. There was no truckling in their relations 
with foreign nations, however powerful they might be, 
and the servile meanness of the Stuarts in carrying out 
Lord Burghley's traditions must be ascribed to their 
degeneracy rather than to the policy itself. 

Of Lord Burghley's place amongst great statesmen it 
may be sufficient to say that his gifts and qualities were 
exactly what were needed by the circumstances of his 
times. He was called upon to rule in a time of radical 
change, when vehement partisans on one side and 
the other were fiercely struggling for the mastery of 
their opinions. It is precisely in such times as these 
that the moderate, tactful, cautious man must in the 
end be called upon to decide between the extremes, 
and to prevent catastrophe by steering a middle course. 
This throughout his life was the function of William 
Cecil. His gifts were not of the highest, for he was 
not a constructive statesman or a pioneer of great 
causes. He often stood by and saw injustice done by I 
extreme men on one or the other side rather than lose 
his influence by appearing to favour the opposite ex- 
treme ; and, as we have seen in his own words, he was 
quite ready to carry out as a minister a policy of which 
as a Councillor he had expressed his disapproval. This 
may not have been high-minded statesmanship, but at 
least it enabled him to keep his hand upon the helm, 
and sooner or later to bring the ship of State back to 
his course again. He was a man whose objects and 
ideals were much higher than his methods, because the 

2 I 



498 THE GREAT LORD BURGHLEY [1598 

latter belonged to his own age, whereas the former were 
based upon broad truths and great principles, which are 
eternal. But it may safely be asserted that the rectitude 
of his mind and his great sense of personal dignity would 
prevent him from adopting any course for which warrant 
could not be found, either in the law of the land or what 
he would regard as overpowering national expediency. 
The first cause he served was that of the State ; the 
second was William Cecil and his house. Through a 
long life of ceaseless toil and rigid self-control these 
were the mainsprings of his activity and devotion. If 
he was austere in a frivolous court, if bribes failed to 
buy him in an age of universal corruption, if he was 
cool and judicious amidst general vehemence, it was 
because the qualities of his mind and his strict self- 
schooling enabled him to understand that his country 
might thus be most effectively served, and that it would 
be unworthy of William Cecil to act otherwise. The 
gifts which made him a great minister at a period when 
moderation was the highest statesmanship, would have 
made him a great judge at any period, and it is in its 
judicial aspect that the finest qualities of his mind are 
discovered. It was to the keen casuist who weighed to 
a scruple every element of a question and saw it on 
every side ; it was to the calm, imperturbable judge, that 
from the first hour of her reign Elizabeth looked to save 
her against herself ; and whatever may be said of Cecil's 
statesmanship in its personal aspect, it had the supreme 
merit of having kept the great Queen upon the straight 
path up which she led England from weakness, dis- 
traction, and dependence, to unity and strength. 



INDEX 



A'LASCO, his visit to England, 29 

Alba, Duke of, 77, 204, 219, 223-224, 
227, 245, 249, 258, 265, 282, 288 

Alencon, Duke of, his relations 
with the Flemings, 319, 323, 328, 
335, 344, 349, 354-356, 358-359, 
360-362, 363-3/O; 372-373, 379, 
382 

Alencon, Duke of, suggestions of 
marriage with Elizabeth, 266-267, 
269, 274-275, 288-290, 303, 324- 
327, 328-341, 344, 349, 353-354, 
358-359, 362-370, 379 ; death of, 
384 

Alford, Roger, 39 

Allington, 232, 249 

Alterennes, seat of the Cecil 
family, 7 

Amboise, Treaty of, 136 

Andrada, a spy in the Lopez plot, 468 

Anglican Church, uniformity in, 
78, 139, 144, 160, 163, 166, 290- 
291, 367, 387 

Anjou, Duke of (Henry III.), pro- 
posed marriage with Elizabeth, 
252-253, 266, 279 

Antonio, Don, Portuguese Pre- 
tender, 344, 356, 358, 361, 395, 
403, 411, 422, 435, 467 

Aquila, Bishop of, Spanish Am- 
bassador, 80, 81, 88, 93, 100, 109, 
in, 127-128, 130, 136^137, 142; 
death of, 147 

Archduke, the, suggested marriage 
with Elizabeth, 77, 80, 88, 103, 
155-157, 160, 168-170, 173-174, 
181, 188, 199, 207 

Armada, the, 402, 411, 423, 427, 

43i, 433-434 

499 



Arran, Earl of, 85-86, 88, 114, 126 
Arundel, Earl of, 36, 65, 72, 99, 174, 

180, 225, 230, 238 
Arundell, Charles, 415 
Ascham, Roger, 9 ; appointed tutor 

to Princess Elizabeth, 12, 13, 62 
Audley, Lord, his remedies for 

gout, 37 

Babington plot, 402-405 

Bacon, Antony, 450, 458 

Bacon, Francis, 450, 458 ; his 

attempts to obtain the Attorney- 
Generalship, 469 
Bacon, Lady, 45, 61, 460 
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 9, 61, 71, 79, 

138, 192, 273, 294, 373 
Baden, Margravine of, Cecilia of 

Sweden, 174 
Bailly, Charles, 258-259 
Balfour, Sir James, 295 
Ballard, agent in the Babington 

plot, 403-404 
Barker, 257 

Barrow, a Brownist leader, 459 
Beale, Clerk of the Council, 378, 381, 

403,411,420 
Beaton, 213 
Beaton, Cardinal, 15 
Beaumont, 36 
Beauvoir de Node, envoy from 

Henry of Navarre, 442-444, 461 
Bedford, Countess of, 61 
Bedford, Earl of, 19, 61, 66-67, 7h 

79,99, 106, no, 327, 382 
Bellievre Pomponne de, sent to 

England about Mary Stuart's 

condemnation, 412-413, 415 
Berchamstow granted to Cecil, 47 



500 



INDEX 



Bertie, Francis, 51 

Bill, Dr., 9 

Biron, Marshal de, 379, 382 

Bochetel de la Forest, French Am- 
bassador, 188, 205, 221-222 

Bodley, Sir Thomas, sent to the 
States, 473 

Bonner, Bishop, 18, 23, 50 

Borough, Sir John, 423-424 

Boston, W Cecil appointed Re- 
corder of, 32 

Bothwell, Earl of, 179, 180, 193-196 

Boulogne, 15, 18, 24 

Bourne, Lincolnshire, birthplace of 
Lord Burghley, 6, 8 

Bowes, Robert, 378 

Boxall, Dr., 206, 223, 224 

Briant, Father, 367 

Brille, capture of, 264-265 

Briquemault, Conde's envoy to 
Elizabeth, 136 

Brisson, French envoy, 355 

Brittany, Spaniards in, 444, 447, 
465, 466, 473 

Bromley, Lord Chancellor, 365, 
408,419 

Brownists, 459 

Bruce, Robert, 395 

Buckhurst, Lord, 411 

Buiz, Paul, 305, 306, 307 

Burghley, Lady, 50, 61, 189, 292 ; 
death of, 438 

Burghley, Lord, birth of, 5; pedi- 
gree, 6; education, 8; at Cam- 
bridge, 9; first marriage, 10; his 
first recommendation to Henry 
VIII., 11, 12; custos brevium.) 14; 
Master of Requests to Somerset, 
14; present at the battle of Pinkie, 
16 ; secretary to Somerset, 16 ; 
grants to, 18 ; his attitude on the 
downfall of the Protector, 19-22, 
28-31 ; sent to the Tower, 22 ; 
appointed Secretary of State, 24 ; 
his character, 25; his attitude to- 
wards Northumberland's foreign 
policy, 27; knighted, 31; Recor- 
der of Boston, 32 ; his report upon 
the Emperor's demand for help, 
33 ; his care for English com- 
merce, 35 ; illness of, in the last 



days of Edward VI., 37 ; grant 
of Combe Park, 37 ; made Chan- 
cellor of the Garter, 37; his atti- 
tude towards Queen Mary's suc- 
cession, 38-43; his justification to 
Mary, 40-46; grants to him dur- 
ing Edward's reign, 47; splendour 
of his household, 47 ; his love of 
books, 48 ; patronage of learning, 
49 ; his liveries, 50 ; conforms to 
Catholicism, 52; brings Pole to 
England, 55; accompanies him 
to Calais, 56; represents Lincoln- 
shire in Parliament, 57; his action 
in favour of the Protestants, 5 8-59 ; 
his habits, 60; his devotion to his 
wife, 61 ; his connections with 
Princess Elizabeth, 62-63 5 l" s 
position on the succession of 
Elizabeth, 66-67 ; his first ar- 
rangements for Elizabeth's gov- 
ernment, 69; his foreign policy 
on the accession, 72-73, 76-77; 
his action in passing the Acts of 
Supremacy and Uniformity, 78 ; 
Spanish plan to bribe him, 79 ; 
his approaches to Spain, 81; his 
Scottish policy, 82, 85, 86, 88 ; 
war with Scotland, 91-94 ; ar- 
ranges the terms of peace in 
Edinburgh, 95-96; court intrigue 
against him, 99 ; checkmates 
Dudley, 103, 105; the suggestion 
as to the Council of Trent, 107- 
109; proceedings against Catho- 
lics, in; his counsel to Knox, 115; 
his attitude towards Mary Stuart, 
116; his numerous activities, 117; 
against piracy, 118; his assertion 
of English right to trade, 119; 
distress at his son's conduct, 120- 
125 ; his attitude towards the 
Huguenots, 128-129, 132-133 ; 
his relations with the Bishop of 
Aquila, 130-131, 136-138; dis- 
trust of the French, 142; his ac- 
tivity in defensive measures, 144; 
his interest in mineralogy, 144; 
appointed Master of the Court of 
Wards, 145; his action as Chan- 
cellor of Cambridge University, 



INDEX 



501 



145-146; his character, 150; 
Dudley's intrigues against him, 
152-153; renewed approaches to 
Spain, 154-157; continued in- 
trigues of Dudley, 158, 160, 164- 
165; his conditions for the Arch- 
duke's match, 169, 174; his dis- 
trust of Catholic interference in 
Scotland, 175 ; his support of 
Murray, 176-177; his con- 
nection with the murder of 
Rizzio, &c, 179-180; urges the 
Archduke's match, 181 -182; 
again approaches the Spaniards, 
183; with the Queen at Oxford, 
186; visited by the Queen at 
Burghley, 187 ; dispute with 
Leicester, 187; urges the Arch- 
duke's match, 189, 190; opposes 
the Netherlands revolt, 190 ; his 
reception of the news of Darnley's 
murder, 192-194, 197; again ap- 
proaches Spain, 198; his attitude 
towards Murray, 201-202; again 
leans to the Protestants, 206-207; 
renewed severity towards Catho- 
lics, 210-212; letter from Mary 
Stuart to him, 216; his treatment 
of her, 218; aids the Huguenots, 
221-222; his rebuke to De Spes, 
228; Leicester's plot against him, 
231; magnanimous treatment of 
his enemies, 238; his despair, 248; 
visits Mary at Chatsworth, 248; 
made a peer, 254; his activities, 
255; his mode of life, 255-256; 
Ridolfi plot and expulsion of De 
Spes, 256-263; execution of Nor- 
folk, 268; entertains the French 
envoys, 269; urges the measures 
in Parliament against Maiy, 271; 
serious illness of, 271 ; action after 
St. Bartholomew, 278-279; ap- 
proaches Spain again, 280; nego- 
tiations with De Guaras, 280-283; 
suggests sending Mary to Scot- 
land, 285-286; his conditions for 
the Alencon match, 289; religious 
anxieties, 290-291 ; his household, 
292-293; interview with Mary at 
Buxton, 294; book against him, 



294-295 ; renewed approaches to 
Spain, 296-305 ; his anger at the 
Flushing pirates, 305-306; visit 
to Buxton, 31 1-3 12; his moderat- 
ing influence, 320-321; in semi- 
retirement, 327; his attitude to- 
wards the Alencon match, 330- 
335 ; his foreign policy as an 
alternative of the Alencon match, 
336-340; efforts in favour of peace, 
343-344 ; opposes the retention 
of Drake's plunder, 346-348 ; 
approaches to France, 351-352; 
entertains the embassy, 352 ; 
details of the feast, 353 ; his re- 
view of the political situation, 
353-354 ; his attitude towards 
Alencon, 363 ; renewed approach 
to Spain, 365; his treatment of 
the Jesuits, 367-368 ; fresh pre- 
dominance of the Protestant 
party, 372-373 ; demands new 
Councillors of his party, 374 ; 
wishes to retire, 379-380 ; his 
attitude towards the Throgmor- 
ton plot, 384 ; his review of 
foreign policy, 385 ; his attitude 
towards the religious controversy, 
387-390 ; his relations with Dr. 
Parry, 391-392 ; slandered by 
the Leicester party, 393 ; his 
kindness to Mary Stuart, 394 ; 
his relations with Leicester in 
the Netherlands, 396-401 ; his 
conduct towards Mary Stuart 
after the Babington plot, 404- 
409 ; fresh approach to Spain, 
411-412; intrigues against him, 
416 ; his conduct towards Davi- 
son, 417-422 ; his attitude to- 
wards Drake's Cadiz expedition, 
424-426 ; negotiations for peace 
with Spain, 425, 427-428, 429- 
432 ; organises the defence of 
England, 429, 432-434 ; visits 
the camp at Tilbury, 433 ; his 
troop of soldiers, 433 note ; his 
share in the Lisbon expedition, 
436-438 ; death of his wife and 
his meditations thereon, 438- 
439 ; change of policy, 440-442 ; 



502 



INDEX 



opposition of Essex, 445-446, 
450 ; Spenser's accusation of 
jealousy, 454; grant of Rocking- 
ham Forest, 455; his devotion to 
duty, 455 ; persistent attacks 
upon him, 456-457 ; his influence 
on the religious controversy, 459; 
his son to succeed him, 663-664; 
his cautious influence on the war- 
party, 465-466 ; his attitude in 
the Lopez plot, 468-470; descrip- 
tion of him by Standen, 471; by 
Sir Michael Hicks, 472 ; renewed 
distrust of the French, 473 ; a 
scheme of national defence, 474 ; 
continued illness, 475 ; ill-dis- 
posed towards France, 477 ; 
Essex's attempt to force his 
hands, 478-479 ; his disagree- 
ment with the Queen, 479 ; his 
attitude towards Essex's attempt 
to relieve Calais, 480 ; towards 
" the islands voyage," 484-486 ; 
his negotiations with De Maisse, 
490-491 ; strives for peace with 
Spain to the last, 494-495 ; re- 
sults of his national policy, 494 ; 
funeral, 496 ; appreciation of his 
character, 497-498 

Burghley, Lord, his diary, 5, 22, 24, 
37, 55, 59, 61, 83, 185, 187, 194, 
272, 432, 439 

Burghley House, 47, 188-189, 327 

Cadiz, Drake's attack upon, 423- 

424 
Calais, loss of, 64, 72-73, 75-76 
Calais, restitution of, claimed, 198, 

208, 369, 478 
Calais, capture of, by the Spaniards, 

479-480 
Cambridge University, 9, 15, 145- 

146, 290 
Campion, Father, 367 
Cannon Row, Burghley's house at, 

31, 60, 66, 120, 256 
Carbery Hill, 196 
Carew, Arthur, 228 
Carew, Sir Peter, 95 
Carrack, the great (Madre de Dz'os), 

452-453 



Cartwright, leader of the Puritans, 

290 
Castelnau de la Mauvissiere, 175, 

277,341-343 

Cateau-Cambresis, peace of, 76, 80 

Catharine de Medici, 10, 92, 128, 
133, 142,154, 157, 166, 213,221- 
222, 251, 266, 273, 297, 326, 341, 
369, 384, 413 

Catharine of Aragon, 3, 4, 7 

Catholic plots against Elizabeth 
and Burghley, 225, 244, 256-259, 
270, 317, 364-366, 371,376, 383- 
384, 389, 390-392, 402-405, 422, 
450, 456, 470 

Cavalcanti, Guido, 73, 75, 232, 251, 
267 

Cave, Sir Ambrose, 71 

Cecil, David, grandfather of Burgh- 
ley, 7 

Cecil, Mrs., 293, 427 

Cecil, Richard, Burghley's great- 
grandfather. 6 

Cecil, Richard, Burghley's father, 
7, 8, 37 

Cecil, Sir Robert, 433, 437"438, 445, 
450, 453-454, 454 note, 457~458, 
461-464, 466-470, m 47 S, .479-480, 
482-483, 486 ; his mission to 
France, 49J-493 

Cecil, Thomas, birth of, 10 ; his 
journey to Paris, 120-122 ; his 
bad conduct, 122-125, 3 2 7, 336, 
433 ; quarrel with his brother, 454 

Cecil (or Burghley) House, in the 
Strand, 269 ; grand banquet at, 
to the French envoys, 352-353, 
411, 442, 476; Burghley's last 
days there, 494-495 

Chark, a preacher at Cambridge, 
291 

Charles V., 3, 4, 13, 27, 32, 33, 53 

Charles IX., King of France, 157, 
166-168, 188, 205, 250, 273, 297; 
death of, 298 

Chartres, Vidame of, 72, 133, 137, 
251,279 

Chastelard, 143 

Chateauneuf del'Aubespine, French 
Ambassador, 407, 413, 416 

Chatillon, Cardinal, 221, 244, 251 



INDEX 



5°3 



Cheke, Mary, marriage with W. 
Cecil, 10 ; her death, 11 

Cheke, Sir John, 9 ; appointed tutor 
to Edward VI., 12, 14, 31, 32, 38, 
45 ; exiled, 5 1 ; lured to England, 
conforms and dies, 58 

Chester, Colonel, 301, 302, 307 

Clerivault, a messenger of Mary- 
Stuart, 194 

Clinton, Lord Admiral, 31, 47, 66, 
99, 269, 327, 365 

Cobham, Lord, 16, 60, 208, 221, 

Cobham, Sir Henry, sent to Spain, 

302 ; sent to France, 381 
Cobham, Thomas, 258 
Coinage, Burghley's care of, 28, 117 
Coligny, 106, no, 133, 136, 183, 206, 

221, 242, 270 
Combe Park granted to Cecil, 37 
Commerce, Burghley's care of, 35, 

118, 151, 183,211, 283, 338, 345 
Commercial war with Spain, 151— 

I 53> 158, 227, 280-283 
Conde, Prince of, 127-128, 133, 136, 

154, 157, 204, 221, 225 ; killed, 

242 
Conde, Prince of, the younger, 278, 

297, 342-343 
Cooke, Sir Anthony, W. Cecil's 

father-in-law, 12, 14 ; exiled by 

Mary, 51, 58, 61 
Cooke, Mildred, married to W. 

Cecil, 12 
Cornwall, Spaniards land in, 474 
Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, 50- 

Courtney, Sir William, 59 
Cranmer, 14, 19-21, 32, 53, 57 
Creighton, Father, 366, 389 
Crofts, Sir James, 347, 365, 372, 

374, 424, 430-431, 444 
Curll, Mary Stuart's secretary, 404 

Dacre, Lord, 234 

Dale, Dr., English Ambassador in 

France, 290 
Danett, Thomas, sent to Vienna, 

188-189 
Darcy, Lord, 240 
Darcy, Sir Thomas, 14 



Darnley, 93, 130, 144, 161, 163, 171- 
J 72, 173, 179-180, 181-182, 192- 

193 

D'Aubigny (Lennox), 341, 354, 364- 
366, 371, 376 

Davison, William, 378, 399 ; his 
connection with the execution of 
Mary Stuart, 417-422; Essex 
proposes him for Secretary of 
State, 445 

De Cosse, Marshal, 298, 303 

De Maineville, Guisan envoy to 
Scotland, 376-377 

De Maisse, Henry IV.'s envoy to 
Elizabeth, proposes peace with 
Spain, 489-491 

Deeping granted to Cecil, 47 

Dering, Edward, Lecturer at St 
Paul's, 291 

Doughty, Lord Burghley's agent 
with Drake, 346-347 

Douglas, Archibald, 414 

Drake, Sir Francis, his voyage 
round the world, 346-348 ; the 
question of his plunder, 358, 365 ; 
his expeditions to aid Don An- 
tonio, &c, 361, 422, 436-438 ; 
his expedition to Santo Domingo, 
&c, 395-396, 402 ; his attack 
upon Cadiz, 423-425 ; urges re- 
prisals against Spain, 465 ; his 
last expedition, 470, 474-475 

Dreux, battle of, 135 

Drury, Sir William, 215, 295, 300 

Drury, Thomas, 19 

Dudley, Guildford, 38 

Dudley, Lady Robert, 101 

Dudley, Lord Robert. See Leicester 

Durham Place, 38, 44, 128, 137 ; 
the Spanish Ambassador ex- 
pelled, 138 ; Cecilia of Sweden 
lodged there, 174 

Dymoke, Sir Edward, champion, 5 1 

Edmunds, Sir Thomas, 393, 479 
Edward VI., 12-13 5 n ^ s appeal for 
Somerset, 20 ; betrothed to Eliza- 
beth of Valois, 24 ; his journal, 
33 ; his will, 38 ; death of, 43 ; 
his educational foundations 
prompted by Cecil, 49 



50 4 



INDEX 



Egmont, Count, 138, 204 
Elizabeth, Princess, 12, 49; enters 
London with Mary, 50, 51, 52, 62, 
63 ; proposals for marriage of, 
63-64, 65 ; her accession, 66 
Elizabeth, Queen, her accession, 
66-68 ; suggestions for marriage, 
75) 76-77 ; her first religious 
measures, 78, 79, 80 ; proposal for 
marriage to Nemours, 84 ; with 
Arran, 85 ; with the Archduke, 
80, 88 ; with the Prince of 
Sweden, 89-90; war with Scot- 
land, 91-96 ; talk of marriage 
with Dudley, 100-103 \ ner re- 
ligious intrigues with Spain, 104- 
105, in ; fears of plots to poison, 
in; her distrust of Mary Stuart, 
113 ; illness of, 117 ; her attitude 
towards the Darnley match, 132 ; 
aids the Huguenots, 133 ; falls 
ill of smallpox, 134 ; anger at 
Conde's defection, 136 ; her 
anger with Parliament on the 
succession question, 141 ; visits 
Cambridge University, 147 ; re- 
newed approaches to Spain, 157 ; 
suggested marriage with Charles 
IX., 157, 166-168 ; approaches 
to the Catholics, 165 ; her atti- 
tude towards the Darnley match, 
172-173 ; her reception of Mur- 
ray, 176-177 ; renewed approach 
to Leicester, 181 ; her reception 
of the news of James Stuart's 
birth, 185-186; illness of, 186; 
visits Oxford, 186-187 ; renewal 
at Burghley House of negotia- 
tions for marriage with Charles 
IX., 188-189; her anger with 
Parliament respecting the suc- 
cession, 191 ; her reception of the 
news of Darnley's murder, 192- 
193 ; condemns the rising in the 
Netherlands, 198 ; her attitude 
towards Murray, 202 ; towards 
the Catholics, 209 ; removes 
Mary from Carlisle, 217; aids 
the Huguenots, 221-222 ; seizure 
of the Spanish treasure, 227 ; 
her treatment of Norfolk, 231- 



241, 246 ; her danger, 242, 247- 
248 ; suggestions for marriage 
with Anjou, 251-253; Ridolfi 
plot, 256-263 ; alliance with 
France, 264-267 ; in favour of 
Mary Stuart, 270-271 ; receives 
the news of St. Bartholomew, 
275 ; progress in Kent, 293 ; 
approaches to Spain, 299-300 ; 
projected war with Henry III., 
301 ; refuses aid to Orange, 303- 
305 ; rejects the sovereignty of 
Holland, 304 ; her treatment of 
Burghley, 310 ; her reception of 
Mendoza, 320 ; her difficulty 
with Alengon, 330-332 ; inter- 
view with Conde, 342 ; danger 
of war, 350 ; her relations with 
France and Alencon, 353-362 ; 
her parsimony, 361-362 ; pledges 
herself to Alencon, 363 ; her 
trouble to get rid of him, 368- 
370 ; negotiations with Mary 
Stuart, 378; letter to Burghley, 
380 ; assumes the Protectorship 
of the Netherlands, 396 ; her 
rage at Leicester's conduct there, 
399-401 ; her treatment of Mary 
after the Babington plot, 404- 
408 ; her answers to Parliament, 
410 ; her reception of French 
and Scotch remonstrances, 412- 
415; her conduct in the execu- 
tion of Mary Stuart, 417-422; 
her perplexity, 426-429 ; anger 
with Essex for going to Lisbon, 
437-438 ; her aid to Henry of 
Navarre, 442-444 ; anger with 
Essex, 448-450; dangerous 
position, 451-452 ; anger at 
Henry IV.'s conversion, 461 ; 
fears of attack from Spain, 465- 
466 ; anger with Essex about 
Lopez, 470 ; her anger with the 
Hollanders, 473 ; Drake's last 
voyage, 474 ; her policy towards 
Henry of Navarre, 478 ; her 
hesitation to relieve Calais, 479- 
480 ; her fickleness about Essex's 
Cadiz voyage, 481 ; about "the 
islands voyage," 484-486 ; her 



INDEX 



S°S 



anger with Essex, 486-487 ; her 
indignation at Henry IV. for 
entering into peace negotiations 
with Spain, 489-493 ; urges the 
States to stand firm, 493 ; grief 
at the death of Burghley, 495- 
496 

Elizabeth of Valois marries Philip 
II., 76, 84 

English Jesuit party in favour of 
Spain, 45M57 5 467, 47o 

English troops in France against 
the League, 443-444, 466 

Erasmus at Cambridge, 9 

Essex, Earl of (Robert Devereux), 

421, 435, 443, 445, 448, 449, 450- 
451, 454, 45 7-45 S, 460-462, 466- 
467, 472-473, 477 ; .his plan to 
force war with Spain, 478-480 
his attempt to relieve Calais, 480 
his expedition to Cadiz, 482-483 
"the islands voyage," 484-486 
retires from 'court, 486-487 
urges war with Spain, 493 
attends Burghley's funeral, 496 

Essex, Lady, marriage with Leices- 
ter, 332 

Farnese, Alexander, 316, 318, 
328 ; peace negotiations with 
England, 425-432 

Felton, 243 

Fere, La, siege of, 477 

Feria, Duke of, Spanish Ambassa- 
dor, 65-67, 72-73, 76-77 

Fitzwilliam sent to Spain, 260 

Flanders, revolt against the Span- 
iards in, 133, 184, 189, 204, 209, 
219, 224, 229, 242, 245, 264-265, 
273, 283-285, 303-307, 313-319, 
320-321, 325, 328, 335, 359, 370- 
373, 379, 382-385, 395-401, 411, 

422, 488-489 

Foix, De, French Ambassador, 157, 
158, 166, 169-170, 175, 265, 269 

Foreign policy of England, 4, 26, 
33, 46, 64, 72-73, 74, 80-81, 85, 
88, 91-92, 1 12-1 14, 128-129, J 36- 
138, 154-155, 166-168, 175-176, 
182, 198-200, 205, 2H. 219, 223- 
224, 228-229, 256-263, 269, 273- 



279, 280-283, 3°°-3 3, 3° 8 , 322, 
328-329, 336-337, 353-354, 37o, 
379, 383-384, 385, 395-396, 407, 
411-412, 426, 440-444, 473, 488- 

France, civil wars in, 126, 133- 
136, 205, 221, 242, 251, 273, 276- 
279, 297, 300-303, 319, 342-343; 
wars of the League, 442-444, 
447, 461-480 

Francis I., 13 

Francis II., King of France, 92 ; 
death of, 106 

French embassy to England (1 581), 

351-359 
French influence in Scotland, 15, 

82, 91-92, 94-96, 107, 132, 144, 

175. 198, 213, 217, 243, 285, 326, 

365,378 
Frobisher, death of, 466 

Gama, a spy in the Lopez plot, 

468 
Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 

14,23, 29-30,50 
Garrard, Sir William, 118 
Gemblours, battle of, 318 
German mercenaries, 301-302 
Gifford, agent in the Babington 

plot, 403-404 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 283 
Glajon, De, his mission from Philip 

to Elizabeth, 93 
Glasgow, Archbishop of, exhorts 

Mary to clear herself, 195, 285, 

367 
Gondi, 323 
Gonson, Controller of the Navy, 

118 
Gout, curious remedies for, 37, 293 

note 
Granvelle, De, 77, 172 
Gray, Master of, 394, 411, 414, 417 
Gray's Inn, Burghley a student at, 

11 
Greenwood, a Brownist leader, 459 
Grenville, Sir Richard, 449 note 
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 221 
Grey, Catharine, 93, 134, 140, 192 
Grey, Lady Jane, 36, 38, 43, 44 
Grey, Lord, 73, 374, 429 



506 



INDEX 



Grey, Lord John, 60, 91, 99 

Grimstone, Mr., 447 

Grindall, Archbishop, 387 

Guaras, Antonio de, Spanish agent, 
248, 271, 280-283, 2 96, 299, 302, 
308, 318 

Guise, Francis, Duke of, 126 

Guise, Henry, Duke of, 299, 341, 
359, 37i, 381, 383-384, 411 ; mur- 
der of, 440 

Guzman de Silva, Spanish Ambas- 
sador, 152, 158, 165, 170-171, 
174-175, 181-182, 190, 192-194, 
199, 201, 210-212, 219 

Haddon, Dr., 9 
Hales, Sir John, 39 
Hampton Court, 19, 469, 471 
Hatfield, 5, 6, 51, 65-66, 120, 255 
Hatton, Sir Christopher, 292, 321, 

329, 334, 336, 347, 364-365, 369- 

37o, 372, 374, 399, 4o8, 419, 424 
Havre de Grace, 133-134, 142, 190 
Hawkins, John, 204, 344~345, fch 

452, 465, 475 ; lays a trap for 

Philip, 260-261 
Heath, Archbishop of York, 66, 71 
Heckington, William, grandfather 

of Burghley, 8 
Heneage, Sir Thomas, 399-401 
Henry II. of France, 27, 75 ; death 

of, 84 
Henry III. of France, 297-298, 303, 

313, 325, 328, 359, 37o-37i, 379, 
384-385; his attitude towards 
Mary Stuart's trial and execution, 
407, 412-414, 416 ; his fear of the 
Guises, 426, 440 ; rallies to the 
Huguenots, 440 ; murder of, 441 
Henry of Navarre, 278, 297, 301, 
303, 342, 385, 440-444, 447-449, 
461, 465-466, 473, 477-48o, 488 ; 
makes peace with Spain, 488- 

493 
Henry VIII., 4 ; favours W. Cecil, 

11-12 ; his death, 13 
Herbert, Lord, 19 
Herll, 306-307, 314 
Herri es, Lord, 215, 262 
Hertford, Earl of, 140, 192 
Hertford, Earl of. See Somerset. 



Hoby, Lady, 234' 

Hoby, Sir Philip, betrays Somerset, 

20 ; friendly with Cecil, 60 
Hoby, Sir Thomas, English Am- 
bassador in France, 187 
Holt, Father, 366, 456 
Horn, Bishop of Winchester, 109 
Horn, Count, 204 
Howard, Lady, 193 
Howard, Lord Thomas, 484, 485 
Howard, Lord William, 66, 72, 99 
Howard of Effingham, 187, 370,. 

417, 429, 465, 475, 480-481 ; 

Earl of Nottingham, 486 
Huguenots. See France, civil wars 

in 
Hume, Lord, 295 
Humphreys, Dr. Laurence, 186- 

187 
Hunsdon, Lord, 245, 370, 403, 429 
Huntingdon, Earl of, 101-102, 134, 

140 
Huntly, Earl of, 180 

Ireland, Papal intrigues in, 111, 
243, 247, 317, 335, 348, 355, 357- 
358, 374, 474 

Ivry, battle of, 444 

James VI., his birth, 185 ; corona- 
tion, 202 ; Catholic plans to kid- 
nap him, 296 ; English mission 
t0 , 378, 380 - 382 ; sends the 
Master of Gray to England, 394 ; 
alliance with England, 403 ; his 
remonstrance with Elizabeth at 
Mary's condemnation, 414 ; at- 
tempts of Catholics to convert 
him, 426 ; his alliance with Eng- 
land, 441 ; again listens to the 
Catholics, 451, 465 ; Essex's atti- 
tude towards him, 466 

Juan, Don, 313-316, 318 

Keith, Sir William, 414 

Kent, Earl of (Reginald Grey), 

419 
Killigrew, 199, 285, 286, 419 
Kingston, Sir Anthony, 59 
Kirkaldy of Grange, 262, 285, 295 
Knollys, Henry, 228 



INDEX 



507 



Knollys, Sir Francis, 71, 79, 187, 
192, 217, 218, 334, 365, 367, 372, 
382, 388, 392, 403 

Knox, John, 86, 114-115, 287 

Knyvett, Sir Henry, 228 

La Mark, capture of Brille by, 
264-265 

La Mole, French envoy, 274-275 

La Mothe Fenelon, French Am- 
bassador, 252, 275-277, 376-377 

La Motte, Spanish Governor of 
Gravelines, 300 

La Noue, Huguenot leader, 136, 443 

Langside, battle of, 214 

Latimer, 57 

League, the Catholic, 154, 157, 199- 
200, 205, 251, 265, 273, 277, 288, 
326, 371, 442-444, 447, 461-466 

Leicester, Earl of, 70, 87, 90, 99, 
100, 112, 132, 135-136, 138, 152, 
157-158, 159, 161, 163-164, 165, 
167-170, 174, 181, 186-187, 191- 
192, 231, 249, 252, 282, 286, 291- 
292, 296, 307-309, 311, 317, 320, 
322, 324, 327, 329, 330-332, 334, 
336, 340, 342-343, 347, 352, 356, 
359, 363-364, 365, 368-370, 372- 
374, 382-384, 386, 388, 392-393, 
395-401, 406, 411, 416, 418, 423, 
429-430, 433 ; death of, 434~435 

Leith, siege of, 93-96 

Lennox, Lady Margaret, 114, 127, 
130, 143, 171, 175, 182, 193 

Lennox, the Regent, 130, 195, 248, 

. 28 5 
Lincoln, Lord. See Clinton 

Lisbon, the English expedition to, 

436-438 
Liturgy, Cecil aids Cranmer in 

settling, 32 
Livingston sent to Scotland, 248 
Lochleven, 196 
Longjumeau, peace of, 221 
Lopez, Dr. Ruy, 467-470 
Lorraine, Cardinal, 83, 113, 154, 

171, 178, 205, 222, 251, 285, 288 
Lumley, Lord, 232, 234 

MAiTLANDofLethington, 113-114, 
126, 132, 141-144, 171, 285 



Man, Dr. English, Ambassador in 
Spain, 210, 263 

Mary, Queen, 17, 23, 30, 36; her 
succession, 38-43, 46, 50 ; coro- 
nation of, 51 ; her marriage, 53 ; 
her reign, 53-65 ; her death, 66 

Mary of Lorraine, 15, 17 ; death 
of, 95 

Mary Queen of Scots, 15 ; to marry 
Edward VI., 15 ; to marry the 
Dauphin, 17, 75, 78, 82-83, 85-86, 
92-93 ; refuses to ratify the peace 
of Edinburgh, 106; intrigues for 
her marriage, 112- 113 ; arrives 
in Scotland, 113-115 ; her ap- 
proaches to Elizabeth, 1 31-132 ; 
her claims to the succession, 140- 
142 ; proposal to marry Don Car- 
los, 142-143; suggested marriage 
with Leicester, 162 ; with Darn- 
ley, 1 70-1 7 1 ; her approaches to 
Spain, 171-173, 175, 184; sus- 
picions of her complicity in the 
murder of Darnley, 193-198 ; 
Lochleven, 196 ; the casket let- 
ters, 201 ; appeals to Elizabeth 
and France, 213 ; escapes to 
England, 214 ; her interview with 
Knollys, 216-217; removed from 
Carlisle, 217; the Commission 
at York, 219 ; her approaches to 
Spain, 223 ; English plots in her 
favour, 225-246 ; Elizabeth ne- 
gotiates for her release, 247-250 ; 
leans entirely on Spain, 256-257 ; 
her connection with the Ridolfi 
plot, 261 ; suggestion to send her 
to Scotland, 286 ; goes to Buxton, 
293 ; adheres entirely to Spain, 
341 ; approaches to D'Aubigny's 
government, 364-366 ; Spanish- 
Jesuit plot in her favour, 371, 376; 
her negotiations with Elizabeth, 
378, 381; sent to Tutbury, 394 ; 
sends Nau to Elizabeth, 394 ; her 
letters intercepted, 395 ; disin- 
herits James in favour of Philip, 
402 ; her connection with the 
Babington plot, 404 ; removed 
to Tixhall, 404 ; to Fotheringay, 
407 ; her trial, 408-409 ; con- 



508 



INDEX 



demned and sentenced, 409-410 ; 

executed, 417, 420 
Mason, Sir John, 26, 27, 99 
Mathias, Archduke, 315, 318 
Maurice of Saxony, 13, 32 
Mayenne, Duke of, 444 
Maynard, Sir Thomas, 475 
Melancthon, 9 
Melvil, Sir Andrew, 408 
Melvil, Sir James, 161-162, 185, 

192 
Melvil, Sir Robert, 182, 184, 415 
Mendoza, Spanish Ambassador, 

319, 324, 326-327, 339, 348, 356, 

363-364, 366, 372-373, 376, 378, 

381-382, 402-404,411,423 
Mercosur, Duke of, 443 
Mewtys, Sir Peter, 106, 130 
Mildmay, Sir Walter, 248, 350, 381, 

407, 435 
Monluc, Bishop of Valence, 95 
Montagu, Chief-Justice, 38 
Montgomerie, Count de, 84, 133, 

206, 278-279, 297 
Montmorenci, Constable, 81, 84, 

269, 299, 303 
Morette, the Duke of Savoy's agent, 

194 
Morgan, Thomas, 395, 402 
Morice, a Puritan Parliament man, 

459 
Morton, Earl of, Regent, 285, 295, 

324, 341; execution of, 364 
Morysine, Thomas, 26, 31 
Muhlberg, battle of, 13, 27 
Mundt, Dr., 155 
Murray, Earl of, no, 113-114, 126, 

132, 175-176, 177-180, 182, 197, 

201, 212, 218-219, 223; murder 

of, 243 

Nantouillet, Provost of Paris, a 

hostage in England, 137 
Nau, Mary's secretary, 394, 404 
Navarre, King of (Anthony de 
Bourbon), 106, no, 127; death 

of, 135 
Navy, English, 144, 248, 338 
Noailles, De, French Ambassador, 

36 
Norfolk, Duke of, 50 



Norfolk, Thomas Howard, fourth 
Duke of, 90, 101, 165, 169, 180, 
191, 192, 231-241, 246-257 ; con- 
demned to death, 267 ; executed, 
268 
Norris, Sir Henry, English Ambas- 
sador in France, 193, 201, 205, 
208, 213, 222, 225, 237, 244, 
252 
Norris, Sir John, 379, 396, 429, 436- 

438, 447, 466 
Northampton, Marquis of, 71, 191 
Northern Lords, rising of, 240-241 
Northumberland, Duke of, 16, 18- 
25 ; his foreign policy, 27 ; his 
religious policy, 36 ; his action 
as to the succession, 38-39 ; leads 
the forces against Mary, 43-44 ; 
his betrayal by the Council, 45- 
46 ; his execution, 50 
Northumberland, Earl of, 185,239 
Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's, 165 

O'Neil, Shan, 127, 136, 185 
Orange, Prince of, 242, 283-284, 

288, 296, 302, 304, 307, 316, 328, 

335, 372, 379, 3 8 2; murder of, 

384 
Oxford, Countess of (Anne Cecil), 

61, 263 note, 292,- 305-306 note j 

death of, 432 
Oxford, Earl of, 263 note, 292, 301, 

305, 375-376 

Paget, Charles (Mopo), 383, 395 
Paget, Sir William, 19-21, 36 ; Lord 

Paget, 59, 64, 66, 76-77, 99 
Palmer, Sir Thomas, divulges 

Somerset's alleged plot against 

Northumberland, 28 
Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, 

108, 140, 206, 296 
Parry, Dr. William, 390-392 
Parry, Sir Thomas, 62, 66-67, 71 > 

is jealous of Cecil, 79-80 
Passau, peace of, 33 
Patten, William, his description of 

the Scotch campaign, 16 
Paulet, Sir Amias, 394"395, 4°4- 

405, 407 ; his refusal to poison 

Mary Stuart, 418, 420, 430 



INDEX 



509 



Peace negotiations with France 

(1555), Cecil present at, 56; ( 1 5 58- 

1559), 65, 72-76, 80 
Pembroke, Earl of, 45, 66, 191- 192, 

238 
Percy, Sir Henry, 95 ; Earl of 

Northumberland, 384 v 
Perez, Antonio, 461-462, 466-467, 

478-479 
Persons, Father, 366 ; his books 

against Burghley, 456-457 
Petre, Sir William, 19-22, 24, 59, 

95 

Philip II., 53, 57, 64-65, 74-75, 84, 
89, 92, 113, 133, 190, 208, 220, 
225, 249, 314-315, 318, 364, 372, 
402-403, 443, 483 ; death of, 495 

Philip II. and Mary Stuart, 142- 
143, 171-172, 223, 245, 256-259, 
266, 341, 371-372, 378, 381-382, 
395, 402-403 

Phillips, T., cipher secretary, 404, 

467 
Pickering, Sir William, 27, 31 ; 

flight under Mary, 52 
Pinart, Secretary, French envoy, 

.356 
Pinkie, battle of, 16, 17 
Plague in London, 246, 375 
Pole, Cardinal, 53 ; brought to 
England by Cecil, 55 ; accom- 
panies him to Calais, 56 
Pollard, Sir John, 59 
Popham, Attorney-General, 408 
Portugal, 211; succession to the 

crown of, 329, 341 
Poynings, Sir Adrian, 134 
Privateers, 220, 224-225, 298 
Protestant exiles under Mary, 51, 

57-59 
Puckering, Lord Keeper, 458 

Ralegh, Sir Walter, 374, 376,401, 
411, 421, 424, 429, 435, 452-453, 
458, 465, 482-483, 484-486 

Rambouillet, 181 

Randolph sent to Scotland, 107, 
no, 127, 130, 162, 172-173, 179 

Reformation, birth of, 2-3, 13 

Religious matters, Cecil's partici- 
pation in them, 32, 53-54, 70, 99, 



104-106, 107-109, 139, 144, 160, 
163, 186, 203, 206-207, 209, 270, 
290-291, 296, 322, 327, 350, 367, 
387-390, 45o, 457-46o 
Renard, Imperial Ambassador, 53, 

57 
Rennes, Bishop of, 222 
Requesens, Spanish Governor of 

Flanders, 296, 298 
Ridley, 57 
Ridolfi plot, 225, 229-230, 235, 257- 

259 
Rizzio, 173, 179, 182 
Rogers, Edward, 71, 141 
Ross, 257 
Ross, Bishop of, 225, 232, 243, 250, 

256-259, 295 
Rouen, siege of, 448-449 
Russell, Lord. See Bedford 
Russian Company, Cecil one of 

the founders of, 36 
Ruthven, raid of, 376 
Ruy Gomez, yy 

Sadler, Sir Ralph, 86, 91, 95 

St. Aldegonde, 305 

St. Bartholomew, 275-276, 288 

St. John's College, Cambridge, 9, 
15, 146 

St. Quentin, battle of, 64 

Sandys, Archbishop, 339 

Sarmiento de Gamboa, 411 

Savage one of the Babington con- 
spirators, 404 

Savoy, Duke of, 63 

Scotland, anarchy in, 15 ; war with, 
16; invasion of, by Somerset, 16; 
battle of Pinkie, 16; French forces 
in, 82 ; war with England, 91 ; 
peace of Edinburgh, 95-96; 
English support of Protestants 
in, 107, no ; Mary and the Pro- 
testants, 113-114; Mary refuses 
to ratify the peace of Edinburgh, 
115; marriage with Darnley, 1 73 ; 
revolt of Murray, 173, 175; mur- 
der of Rizzio, 182 ; murder of 
Darnley, 192-193 ; French plots 
in, 197-199; Murray as Regent, 
212; Langside, 214; civil war, 
218; murder of Murray, 243; 



5io 



INDEX 



Catholic influence dominant, 243; 
Morton Regent, 285 ; rise of the 
Protestant party, 295 ; rise of 
D'Aubigny, 341, 354, 364; Span- 
ish Jesuit plot in, 371 ; Master of 
Gray sent to England, 394 

Scrope, Lady, 232 

Scrope, Lord, 216 

Seminary priests in England, 209, 

336, 349, 354, 3^6, 389-390, 402, 

450-451 
Seymour, Lord Admiral, 17 
Sherwin, Father, 367 
Shrewsbury, Countess of, her accu- 
sations against her husband and 

Mary Stuart, 394 
Shrewsbury, Earl of, 66, 293, 310- 

311,352, 378,394 
Sidney, Lady, 88, 90 
Sidney, Sir Henry, 104 
Simier, 326, 328-329, 330-332, 334~ 

335, 336, 354 
Smalkaldic league, 1 3 
Smith, Sir John, sent to Madrid, 314 
Smith, Sir Thomas, 9, 16, 19-22, 

24,62, 134, .157, 266,274, 290 
Somers, English envoy to France, 

359 

Somerset, Duke of, 12-14; his in- 
vasion of Scotland, 16 ; Cabal 
against him, 17; his downfall, 19- 
25 ; execution of, 28 ; Burghley's 
behaviour towards him, 28-31 

Southampton, Earl of. See Wrio- 
thesley 

Spain, English relations with, 33, 
72-73, 76-77, 80-82, 88, 92-94, 
103-106, 129-130, 136-139, 152, 
154, 158-160, 181-183, 187, 189, 
210-21 1, 219, 227-229, 232-241, 
248, 257-263, 280-283, 296, 3°o- 
308, 313-316, 319-320, 326-327, 
336-337, 346-347, 356-359, 385- 
386, 411-412, 422, 453, 457-458, 
465, 474 

Spalding, 18 

Spanish fury in Antwerp, 314 

Spes, Gerau de, Spanish Ambassa- 
dor, 220, 223-224, 225, 227-228, 
232-239, 245-248 ; expelled from 
England, 263 



Spinola, 159, 224 

Stafford, Sir Edward, English Am- 
bassador in France, 415, 423 

Stamford Grammar School, 49 

Standen, Anthony, 460, 464 note, 
47i . 

Stanhope arrested on Somerset's 
downfall, 21 

Stolberg, Count, 199 

Storey, Dr., 262 

Stuart, Arabella, 457 

Stubbs' book against the French 
match, 330 

Succession to the crown of Eng- 
land, 140, 191, 231, 402, 413, 419, 
457-458 

Suffolk, Duchess of (Lady Wil- 
loughby), 7, 15, 26, 31 ; flight 
under Mary, 51, 58, 99, 327 

Suffolk, Duke of (Grey), 31, 43 

Supremacy, Act of, 78 

Sussex, Earl of, 60, 169-170, 174, 
181, 190, 192, 240, 245, 292, 301, 
324, 326, 331, 333-334, 34o, 343, 
347, 353, 365, 372 

Swetkowitz, Adam, an envoy of 
the Emperor, 168-170, 174 

Sweden, King of (Eric XIV.), 89- 
90, 103, 112, 113, 174 

Talbot, Gilbert, 322, 420 
Theobalds, Burghley's house, 255 ; 

the Queen visits, 272, 321-323, 

327, 358, 375, 446, 463, 476; 

Burghley's last visits, 494 
Thetford granted to Cecil, 47 
Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, 65, 72, 206 
Throgmorton, Francis, his plot, 383 
Throgmorton, Sir Nicholas, 83-84, 

92, 106, no, 120-124, 128-129, 

130, 134, 172-173, 174, 192, 203, 

221, 230 
Thynne arrested on Somerset's 

downfall, 21 
Tinoco, a spy in the Lopez plot, 

468 
Trent Council, 105, 108-109, in 
Tyrone's rebellion, 474 

Unton, Sir Henry, his mission to 
France, 478-479 



INDEX 



5 11 



Valdes, Pedro de, 302 
Venturini, Borghese, 128, 130 
Verstegen, his book against Burgh- 
ley, 457 
Vervins, peace of, 493 
Vielleville, Marshal, 133 

Waldegrave, Sir Edward, in the 
Tower, in 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, 252, 264- 
265, 275-277, 290, 310, 320, 322, 
33*, 336, 347, 354-355> 356, 359- 
360, 363, 365, 367, 372-373, 378, 
381-382, 386, 392, 396, 399-4oi, 
403, 416, 418, 429 

Warwick, Earl of. See North- 
umberland 

Warwick, Earl of (Ambrose Dud- 
ley), 134, 159 

Watson, Dr., 9 

Wentworth, Mrs. (Elizabeth Cecil), 

375 
Wentworth, Peter, 458-459 
West, rising of the, 17 
Westmoreland, Earl of, 240 
Wh alley, 29 

White, Bishop of Winchester, 70 
White, Nicholas, 254 
Whitgift, Archbishop, 387-389, 460 
Wilkes, Clerk of the Council, 301, 

317 



Williams, Sir Roger, 478 

Williams, Speaker of the House of 
Commons, 139 

Willoughby D'Eresby, Lord, 7 

Willoughby D'Eresby, Lord (Pere- 
grine Bertie), 370, 443 

Wilson, Dr., sent to the States, 
314 ; Secretary, 347 

Wimbledon, 18, 31, 37, 47, 51, 60 

Winchester, Marquis of, 31, 37, 47, 
99, 139 ; death of, 271 

Windebank, 1 21-124 

Wolsey, 3 

Wotton, Dr., Secretary of State, 
22 ; succeeded by Burghley, 24, 

65, 72, 74, 95 

Wotton, Sir Henry, sent to France 
respecting Mary Stuart's con- 
demnation, 412 

Wrangdike granted to Cecil, 47 

Wriothesley, Lord Chancellor, 13, 
18, 36 

Wroth, Sir Thomas, 129 

Wurtemburg, Duke of, 155, 168 

Wyatt's Rebellion, 51 

Wynter, 118 

Yaxley, an envoy of Mary Stuart 

to Spain, 176 
Yeoman of the Robes. See Cecil, 

Richard 



THE END 



Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson 6^ Co. 
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